Religion And Public Life In The Southern Crossroads Book

This is probably the most helpful collection of Smith's essays. He provides an autobiographical intro charting his interests and research questions over the course of his career, and many of the treatment provided here are indicative of some of his major works. So, if you want to know how Smith understands his own argument in "To Take Place" or his obsession with the dictum "Map is not Territory," this is the place to start.

There is a lot of repetition in this collection; he occasionally uses the same few paragraphs at the same points in his argument... but overall the collected essays are helpful, coherent, and provide interesting forays into history of religions, comparative methodology, and Smith's own distinctive approach.