Blog request: explaining north / south difference in the US to someone not from here

So one of my undergrads from mainland China is off to do a master's degree at Virginia next year. I was trying to come up with a suggestion of something that he could read that would make sense to him of how and why the south is different from the north but found myself without much in the way of ideas.

Suggestions from readers, either via the comments or by email (which I will then summarize and post) are very welcome.