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The Southern tradition at bay a history of postbellum thought

While Richard M. Weaver is best known for the classic Ideas Have Consequences, the foundation of his career was this study of his native South. Calling the Southern tradition "the last non-materialist civilization in the Western world," he traced its roots to feudalism, chivalry, religiosi...

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Main Author: Weaver, Richard M., 1910-1963 (Author)
Other Authors: Gore, George (Editor), Bradford, M. E. 1934-1993 (Editor)
Format: Books Print Book
Language: English
Published: Washington, D.C. : Lanham, MD : Regnery Gateway ; Distributed to the trade by National Book Network, ©1989.
Subjects:
Southern States > Intellectual life > 1865-
Southern States > Civilization > 19th century.
Southern States > Civilization > 20th century.
Summary: While Richard M. Weaver is best known for the classic Ideas Have Consequences, the foundation of his career was this study of his native South. Calling the Southern tradition "the last non-materialist civilization in the Western world," he traced its roots to feudalism, chivalry, religiosity, and aristocratic conventions. The Old South, he concluded, "may indeed be a hall hung with splendid tapestries in which no one would care to live; but from them we can learn something of how to live." Weaver's exploration of the ideals and ideas of the Southern tradition as expressed in the military histories, autobiographies, diaries, and novels of the era following the Civil War-especially those written by the men and women on the losing side-is offered to a new generation of readers for whom that tradition has fallen into disrepute and who can scarcely imagine a life rooted in nature, the soil, and a powerful sense of honor. The Southern Tradition at Bay is, as Jeffrey Hart noted, the work of a man who admired what "is admirable indeed, and that is the foundation of wisdom and indeed sanity.
Item Description: Originally published: New Rochelle, N.Y. : Arlington House, ©1968.
Physical Description: xxviii, 388 pages ; 23 cm
Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references (pages 329-348) and index.
ISBN: 9781684511815
168451181X
0895267608
9780895267603
0895267586
9780895267580
Author Notes: Richard M. Weaver taught for nearly two decades at the University of Chicago before his death in 1963. A student under both' John Crowe Ransom and Cleanth Brooks, Weaver was a well-known adherent of the Southern Agrarian school of social criticism. His books and essays have established him as one of the most important and influential philosophers of the twentieth century.

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