Customer Reviews

Conjectures of Order: Intellectual Life and the American South, 1810-1860 (2 Volume Set)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A recent book covering American literature until 1877 had no Southern writers besides Poe and, in a detailed section on the Civil War, did not offer a single pro-Confederate work. This textbook only serves the myth, perpetuated by Henry Adams and even W.J.Cash, that the Old South had no intellectual culture to speak of. Michael O'Brien has railed against this myth in his previous works. In these two volumes, he utterly destroys it.

In the almost 1500 pages, O'Brien offers an outstanding work of intellectual history. Almost everyone ever associated with the Old South is here. Political theorists like Calhoun and Upshur; women like Mary Chestnut and Louisa McCord; Joel Poinsett is mined for how the Old South saw South America; Edmund Ruffin, Hugh Legare (an old O'Brien favorite), James Henley Thornwell, James Henry Hammond, William G. Simms, the list goes on and on. O'Brien's synthesis is truly amazing as he portrays the mind of the Old South.

This is a work that should not be ignored but I fear is doomed to collect dust. The book is way, way too long and casual students of American intellectual history will more likely than not ignore it. O'Brien set out to destroy the myth that the Old South had no mind. Despite a good writing style and a valiant effort, I wonder if O'Brien's thoroughness undermines his attempt-again the work is almost 1500 pages long. Want proof? This is the first customer review despite the work being out for six years already.