I'll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition (Library of Southern Civilization) [Paperback]

Twelve Southerners (Author), Susan V. Donaldson (Introduction)

Product Details

• Paperback: 359 pages
• Publisher: Louisiana State University Press; 75 Anniversary edition (November 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080713208X
• ISBN-13: 978-0807132081
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #496,900 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, rotten intro..., May 1, 2008

By 

Pennsylvania Settler (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I'll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition (Library of Southern Civilization) (Paperback)

I'd avoid this version of the book and instead seek out the older edition with the intro by Louis Rubin. He does a much better job of explaining the Agrarians' place and time (which is vital for understanding their 'project') and his grasp on the big picture of what they were trying to say is far more accurate than Ms. Donaldson's, whose feminist/multiculturalist approach is less than helpful, and rather silly in some places. Her point seems to be that while the Agrarians said they were alarmed at the commercialism and industrialism that were encroaching on the South, what they really were afraid of were upwardly-mobile blacks and 'modern' women. Uh...yeah, right.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poetic, Scholarly, Timeless, August 6, 2008

By 

Robert Kavanaugh "Professor Bob" (Spring Branch, TX) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: I'll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition (Library of Southern Civilization) (Paperback)

A scholar's view, poetically given, of what "Subsidiarity" and G.K.Chesterton earlier called "Distributism." At the essence of it is the romantic idea of the Jeffersonian "yoeman farmer" and what it means to have citizens tied to the land - their land - and the social and political consequences of such things in America. Likely, this book will be studied over a hundred years from now. So will the sole companion book later published, Beyond Capitalism & Socialism: A New Statement of an Old Idealby Kirkpatrick Sale.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Timeless Classic, January 28, 2009

By 

Jason Carter "President of Aegis Strategies, ... (St. Louis, MO USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: I'll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition (Library of Southern Civilization) (Paperback)

Written by the Twelve "Fugitives" from Vanderbilt, this books is a timeless look at the benefits of the Southern agrarian life over and against the crass industrialism of the North.

When it was written, it appeared inevitable to the authors that industrialization was coming to their beloved South; they wrote these essays to warn against uncritical acceptance of that fate. Now, some 3/4 of a century later, their prophecy has proven correct but their warnings went by and large unheeded. Except for a small remnant, even Southerners have been fooled by the siren call of "Progress".

This book should be read by all, Northerners and Southerners alike, to help us remember that there is a good life consisting in love of the land, leisure, and small town communities that is being destroyed by the suburbanization of nearly every formerly distinct town in America.