Tracing the Agrarian tradition from its origins in the 1920s through the present day, Murphy shows how what began as a radical conservative movement eventually became, alternately, a critique of twentieth-century American liberalism, a defense of the Western tradition and Christian humanism, and a form of southern traditionalism--which could include a defense of racial segregation. Although Agrarianism failed as a practical reform movement, its intellectual influence was wide-ranging, Murphy says. This influence expanded as Ransom, Tate, and Warren gained reputations as leaders of the New Criticism. More notably, such "neo-Agrarians" as Richard M. Weaver and M. E. Bradford transformed Agrarianism into a form of social and moral traditionalism that has had a significant impact on the emerging conservative movement since World War II.
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Book Description
In 1930, a group of southern intellectuals led by John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, Donald Davidson, and Robert Penn Warren published I'll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition. A stark attack on industrial capitalism and a defiant celebration of southern culture, the book has raised the hackles of critics and provoked passionate defenses from southern loyalists ever since. As Paul Murphy shows, its effects on the evolution of American conservatism have been enduring as well.
Editorial Reviews
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Paul Murphy's book is an admirably-crafted, intelligent, and informed work which is now the best account we have of the trajectory from I'll Take My Stand to the southern (and American) conservative tradition of today. (Michael O'Brien, Miami University)
About the Author
Paul V. Murphy is assistant professor of history at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan.
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
prescient insight into American conservatism,
By "tjshadwell" (United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Rebuke of History: The Southern Agrarians and American Conservative Thought (Paperback)
A compelling narrative is only part of what makes this look at the most overlooked group of thinkers in American political history so gripping. Murphy introduces the novice to the thought of the Agrarians, a group of literary theorists and historians who gathered at Vanderbilt University in the 1920s. He provides a great overview of the context under which they wrote, an America in the throws of industrialization, urbanization, and post-World War I disillusionment. He then follows the Agrarians and their thought into the middle part of the twentieth century, demonstrating how the arguments made by John Crowe Ransom, Alan Tate, Donald Davidson, et. al. in their famous collection of essays "I'll Take My Stand" contributed to the emergence of conservatism in the 1950s. In the most interesting portions of the book, Murphy discusses the fact that the Agrarians, clearly conservatives, actually presaged some of the themes we now associate with the left - such as the criticisms of modern society, the decline of community, etc. Good book. Worth your time if you are in the least bit interested in the evolution of American ideological thought and Southern intellectual history.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
"The great of the Agrarian group was the society we made," Agrarian Andrew Nelson Lytle recalled years later. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
southern literary scholars, southern particularism, southern master class, southern conservative tradition, traditionalist conservatism, southern conservatism, modern southerner, southern past, southern identity, conservative intellectual movement, radical conservatism, southern letters, new conservatism, southern ministers, southern tradition, conservative movement Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, New York, Donald Davidson, Civil War, Allen Tate, Old South, National Review, Old Right, Vanderbilt University, Ghost Dance, John Crowe Ransom, New Humanists, New South, South Carolina, University of North Carolina, Lost Cause, Robert Penn Warren, University of Chicago, Ideas Have Consequences, New Deal, Russell Kirk, Cold War, Native Americans, New Conservatives, Jack Burden New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
"The great of the Agrarian group was the society we made," Agrarian Andrew Nelson Lytle recalled years later. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
southern literary scholars, southern particularism, southern master class, southern conservative tradition, traditionalist conservatism, southern conservatism, modern southerner, southern past, southern identity, conservative intellectual movement, radical conservatism, southern letters, new conservatism, southern ministers, southern tradition, conservative movement Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, New York, Donald Davidson, Civil War, Allen Tate, Old South, National Review, Old Right, Vanderbilt University, Ghost Dance, John Crowe Ransom, New Humanists, New South, South Carolina, University of North Carolina, Lost Cause, Robert Penn Warren, University of Chicago, Ideas Have Consequences, New Deal, Russell Kirk, Cold War, Native Americans, New Conservatives, Jack Burden New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 116
books:
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3
books
cite this book:
- I'll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition (Library of Southern Civilization) by Louis Decimus, Jr. Rubin on 14 pages
- Brother to Dragons by Robert Penn Warren on 7 pages
- Ideas Have Consequences by Richard M. Weaver on 6 pages
- A Better Guide Than Reason: Studies in the American Revolution by M. E. Bradford on 5 pages
- In Defense of Freedom and Related Essays by Frank Meyer on 4 pages
See all 116 books this book cites
- How Race Is Made: Slavery, Segregation, and the Senses by Mark M. Smith in Back Matter
- American Behavioral History: An Introduction by Peter Stearns on page 196
- Reinventing the South: Versions of a Literary Region (American Literature) by Mark Royden Winchell on page 118
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