Cavalier and Yankee: The Old South and American National Character [Paperback]

William R. Taylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1980

William Taylor's Cavalier and Yankee was one of the most famous works of American history written in the 1960s. The book is an intellectual history of the South before the Civil War, the perception of it in the North, and the effect it had upon the nation in the years from 1800 to 1860. First published in 1961 and out of print for several years, Taylor's classic study remains essential to the study of the pre-Civil War South.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An extremely important book, a brilliant and original contribution to America's understanding of itself."--Edmund Wilson, The New Yorker

"Anyone seriously interested in the development of American culture will be grateful for the new insights, the fresh conceptions, and the deep probings of national character that enrich this study of an American myth."--C. Vann Woodward, New York Times Book Review

"Taylor's study is intellectual history, I think, of the most imaginative and convincing kind. His book seems greatly superior to almost everything else that has been done about the state of mind of the antebellum South....It is indeed something of a landmark in the writing of Southern cultural history."--Louis D. Rubin, Jr.

"A worthy addition to the personal library of anyone interested in southern history. Cavalier and Yankee is a brilliant and original contribution to America's understanding of itself. It reflects the mind of the South, its anxieties and consolations, its questionings and self-justifications, and its reactions to social change....Taylor's work is the best chronicle we have of the social thinking and fictional sociology which went into the framing of the antipodal myths of the Cavalier and the Yankee. In Short, Cavalier and Yankee is a must for anyone interested in antebellum American thought, culture, and letters."--Register of the Kentucky Historical Society

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

William R. Taylor is at State University of New York at Stony Brook. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 393 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (March 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674104404
• ISBN-13: 978-0674104402
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,004,747 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Southern Gentlemen and Puritan Roundheads, November 15, 2011

By 

Fan of Time-Life Books "Chris" (Spokane, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cavalier and Yankee: The Old South and American National Character (Paperback)

In Cavalier and Yankee: The Old South and American National Character (1961) William Taylor examines literary fiction of early 19th century America and its role in shaping the national character. He elaborates on the popular 19th century theory that the North had been settled by one party to the English Civil War, the Roundheads, and the South by the other, the royal party of the Cavaliers. The Yankee was a direct descendent of the Puritan Roundhead and the Southern Gentleman of the English Cavalier. These two ways of life steadily diverged from colonial times and many Americans after 1861 believed that these differences between North and South had brought on the Civil War. Taylor traces how this idea grew and developed in the first half of the 19th century. Also, Taylor asserts that the Cavalier ideal was significant because it defined a tendency in southern thought which ultimately affected political events.

Taylor believes that Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is a significant work of American literature; its publication probably did more than any book ever published to alter the American image of the South. At the same time, John Brown's raid of 1859 altered the southern image of the North; to southerners, John Brown personified northern predatory intentions as well as destructiveness, conspiracy, and hypocrisy.

Finally, Taylor asserts that the line between North and South was psychological and not physical. In summary, Taylor reveals the differences between North and South through the lens of literary fiction. This literary fiction affected the psychology of both regions and was a factor in southern sectionalism. I liked this book a great deal as it presents a unique perspective on the causes of the American Civil War. Highly recommended.

10 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, April 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Cavalier and Yankee: The Old South and American National Character (Paperback)

If you think this book details the divurgence of American culture in the 1800s, you will be disappointed. Author spends too much time encapsulating the plots of dozens of novels, some of them rather obscure. His main point of the south as a declining culture and thus a culture winding its way to secession out of frustration is dubious. Author spends a lot of time detailing the decline of Virginia's worn out tobacco plantations but chooses not to discuss the spectacular economic growth of the South's western cotton plantations.