From the Publisher

By Robert L. Miller

Journalists often need to be archaeologists, sifting through the pottery shards and empty chambers of a place to unlock its mysteries. During his 33 years at TIME, Washington contributing editor Hugh Sidey has developed his own way to recognize the character of small towns. "If there is a nice, tidy Episcopal church, then you know there is a strong ruling elite," he says. "If there is a huge Methodist church, you know there is a large middle class. And if you go to the main square and the streets are deserted, you know there is a discount store somewhere in the area that has sucked the life out of the downtown."

Sidey comes naturally by his powers of observation. A native of Greenfield, Iowa (pop. 2,074), he grew up working on the family newspaper, the Adair County Free Press. "I got some valuable lessons from my little town," he says. "It taught me to notice what is growing in the ground and what the field looks like when the sun comes up. That's a big part of what I'm all about."

Cracking the enigma of Mississippi's Delta for this week's issue, however, strained even Sidey's talents. To prepare for the story -- the latest in a series of dispatches appearing under the rubric Hugh Sidey's America -- Sidey spent two weeks poring over books on the region and interviewed almost 100 sources. "The Delta is so complex and different," he says. "There, the struggle for the nation's soul is still going on."

Rural Mississippi is a long way from the White House, where Sidey has chronicled the comings and goings of Presidents from Eisenhower to Bush. But for this veteran Washington watcher, who logs at least 100,000 miles a year roving the country's byways, the heartland is where the drama of American politics unfolds. "Any program that is passed either affects certain people or they have to pay for it," he explains. "To comprehend the political struggles in Washington, you have to know what's occurring in the small corners of this nation." Sidey has always been unerring in his devotion to that axiom. The politicians he covers sometimes tend to forget it, and that's how many news stories get their start.