The Southern Tradition : The Achievement and Limitations of an American Conservatism [Hardcover]

Eugene Genovese (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 22, 1994 | Series: William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in the History of American Civilization

In recent years American conservatism has found a new voice, a new way of picking up the political pieces left in the wake of liberal policies. But what seems innovative, Eugene Genovese shows us, may in fact have very old roots. Tracing a certain strain of conservatism to its sources in a rich southern tradition, his book introduces a revealing perspective on the politics of our day. As much a work of political and moral philosophy as one of history, The Southern Tradition is based on the intellectual journey of one of the most influential historians of the late twentieth century.

To appreciate the tradition of southern conservatism, Genovese tells us, we must first understand the relation of southern thought to politics. Toward this end, he presents a historical overview that identifies the tenets, sensibilities, and attitudes of the southern-conservative world view. With these conditions in mind, he considers such political and constitutional issues as state rights, concurrent majority, and the nature and locus of political power in a constitutional republic. Of special interest are the southern-conservative critiques of equality and democracy, and of the Leviathan state in its liberal, socialist, and fascist forms. Genovese examines these critiques in light of the specific concept of property that has been central to southern social and political thought.

Not only does this book illuminate a political tradition grounded in the writings of John Randolph and John C. Calhoun, but it shows how this lineage has been augmented by powerful literary figures such as Allen Tate, Lewis Simpson, and Robert Penn Warren. Genovese here reconstitutes the historical canon, reenvisions the strengths and weaknesses of the conservative tradition, and broadens the spectrum of political debate for our time.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Genovese (Roll, Jordan, Roll, LJ 9/1/74) examines the philosophical, historical, and cultural foundations of Southern conservatism. He contrasts it not only with Marxism and other perspectives of the political left but also with those strains of conservatism that emphasize the primacy of unfettered individualism and laissez-faire economics. According to Genovese, the distinctive characteristics of Southern conservatism include not only support for the broad ownership of private property but also a belief that "socially determined moral restraints" should restrain the activities of the marketplace. While broadly critical of aspects of modern political, economic, and social conditions, Genovese does not offer specific proposals for change; nor does he present a well-defined philosophical framework in which to ground change. But he suggests that Southern conservatism, despite its limitations and contradictions, offers insights that can inform such efforts. A useful addition to the political philosophy and history collections of academic libraries.
Thomas H. Ferrell, Univ. of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

It would be difficult to imagine a more precise or lucid depiction of genteel Southern conservatism than that offered herein by Eugene D. Genovese...Penetrating and persuasive. (Jonathan Yardley Washington Post Book World )

Eugene Genovese is a Marxist historian with conservative affiliations who has had a greater impact on current interpretations of the Southern past than any other scholar with the possible exception of C. Vann Woodward...Iconoclastic, defiant and thoroughly engaging, this Jeremiah finds little ground for optimism. He warns allies and foes alike of future perils and seeks, probably in vain, a usable conservative tradition...cleansed of the racism and economic materialism that once constituted much of its ideology...Last year's mid-term elections suggest, however, that Genovese is no longer in a minority, nor the South the pariah it once was: his exposition of the tensions between conservative social ideals and actual practice makes The Southern Tradition a study far richer in meaning than liberal critics are likely to recognize. (Bertram Wyatt-Brown London Review of Books )

Brilliant...learned, deep, cogent, and provocative, guaranteed to churn the brain. (Forrest McDonald National Review )

At once a bold tract for the time and a cogent summary interpretation of the complex relationship of the history of the American South to the history of the nation...[This book is] a rich distillation of the thinking of the South that is embodied in a series of remarkable studies [by the author]. (Lewis P. Simpson Partisan Review )

The notion of a Southern political tradition can be understood as conservative, complete, and consistent with its roots. Eugene Genovese's The Southern Tradition poignantly articulates these qualities...[and] pertinently reviews American conservatism's intellectual roots. (Won Kim Southern Partisan )

Eugene D. Genovese, one of America's most distinguished historians, has previously written extensively about different aspects of Southern history. Now, in this volume--succinct, erudite, and eloquent--he describes and (at any rate partially) praises the distinctive Southern tradition of conservatism, from its beginnings to the present time...Genovese's hints throughout this book as to the kind of Left he would like to see are appealing as well as intellectually stimulating. (Peter L. Berger Commentary )

[Genovese] brings to this study of the southern tradition a rare if not unique combination of points of view and standards of scholarship. (C. Vann Woodward Times Literary Supplement )

The Southern Tradition is a very important book. Genovese calls us to task by identifying meritorious principles of the southern tradition and their relevance to contemporary politics. All serious students of U.S. politics should read this book. (Marshall DeRosa Perspectives on Political Science )

This is a compelling and provocative book. The work of a devout leftist who is also one of this country's leading historians, The Southern Tradition is a perceptive and sympathetic portrayal of one of the main currents in American conservative thought. It is also historical revisionism of a very high order...It is one measure of the power of this book that even a conservative reader comes away wondering if he might not be right. (A. J. Bacevich First Things )

In roughly 100 pages, Genovese presents a thoughtful, scholarly analysis of political philosophy, the role of government, and how the white South plays into this...A significant asset to any political theorist's collection. (L.L. Duke Choice )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 154 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press; aFirst Edition First Printing edition (July 22, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674825276
• ISBN-13: 978-0674825277
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,421,873 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Two Conservatisms, December 9, 1996

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This review is from: The Southern Tradition : The Achievement and Limitations of an American Conservatism (Paperback)

Eugene Genovese must be the most interesting writer inAmerica. This New York-born professed Marxist analyzesconservatism more thoroughly and respectfully than many conservatives do. And one cannot grasp the antebellum South, which he treats just as respectfully, without him. In this little book, Genovese effectively argues that Southern conservatism is different from, and occasionally hostile to, what most people think of as conservatism. Southern conservatives are conservatives of community and tradition rather than Limbaughian market worshippers. Essential.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Analyzing the Southern Tradition, August 21, 2004

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R. Setliff - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Southern Tradition : The Achievement and Limitations of an American Conservatism (Paperback)

~The Southern Tradition~ by Eugene Genovese is a captivating, objective examination of southern conservatism and the southern tradition. The first chapter, The Lineaments of Southern Tradition, examines southern culture and conservatism in the Old South. The American South's currents such as traditional Protestant Christianity and its affinity for localism and agrarianism are all discussed in this first chapter. Genovese points out that southern conservatives accept "hierarchy and stratification as natural, necessary and proper," at the same time resisting a tendency toward sponsorship of a self-aggrandizing elite or artificial aristocracy. The interplay of political and constitutional principles with the southern way of life is examined in the second chapter. It may be the boast of southerners that the first avowed conservatives in the U.S. were southern democrats. Southern luminaries like John Taylor of Caroline and John C. Calhoun stood opposed to Jacobin egalitarian leveling, and the materialism wrought out in the Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution. For nineteenth century southerners, their constitutional order allowed for the peaceful coexistence of antithetical systems of property. Genovese disavows the contentions by those who dismiss states' rights as nothing more than an instrument for preservation of slavery. He recognizes that the states' rights constitutional hermeneutic is by no means peculiar to the south, as states' rights doctrine arguably had its expression intensely felt in the northern section in the early nineteenth century. Likewise, the Hartford Convention and Pennsylvanian William Rawle's commentary affirming the constitutional right of secession demonstrates regional particularism; and goes a long way to vindicate this last point. Genovese elaborates on John C. Calhoun's theorizing about "concurrent majorities" coupled with his reform-minded activism which hoped to ameliorate the crisis of the federal system. Through constitutional reform, Calhoun endeavored to essentially make the polity more federal, and thus stave off an impending sectional crisis but striving for sectional equilibrium. The essence of federalism has always been a diffusion of powers and subsidiarity. Among Calhoun's proposals emanating from his doctrine of concurrent majorities was the idea of a sectional triple presidency. With an absolute veto for each section which would effectively bar a numerical majority from oppressing and expropriating a minority.

Genovese rightly rejects simplistic reductionism perpetrated by biased political theorists and sociologists who itinerate the dubious notion that southern conservatives are in fact quasi-fascists. Genovese further notes this to be a "charge by those who know nothing about southern conservatism or fascism. Those who study both honestly will be surprised by how little fascism and southern conservatism share." The Fascist State is repugnant to parochial minded southerners. Likewise, provincial southerners with their penchant for localism are repulsed by centralism and overbearing statism.

Genovese further probes into southern conservatism's manifestations in the twentieth century discernible in the agrarian thought of Herb Agar, John Ransom, Allen Tate and Richard Weaver. These figures all seemed to recognize that corporate centralization and big government go hand in and hand. The agrarian critique of crass Yankee capitalism scolded it for monopolistic tendencies and its de facto destruction of private property while supplanting it with an irresponsible system of managerial and bureaucratically managed collective property just as socialism does. Such a collectivist economic system has a tendency to run roughshod over the individual and is destructive of traditional culture and institutions. Southern conservatives were increasingly cognizant of finance capitalism's capacity to degenerate into socialism. Big government and big business went hand in hand, and it acted as a solvent dissolving social bonds and smothering an organic, traditional civil society.

All the things considered, Genovese does an excellent job capturing the history, politics, culture and lineaments of the Southern Tradition. His objectivity for having come from the Marxist Left is to be commended. Having endured Marxist CRITs from college and their "trashing" tactics, I find it commendable and honest scholarship. Genovese arguably explains southern conservatism perhaps with more clarity, sympathy and honesty than a southern conservative could ever do. I understand, however, that more recently Genovese and his wife have found the Christian faith and drifted towards the culturally conservative Right.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Strange, thoughtful and unsettling essays, October 17, 2007

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greg taylor (Portland, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Southern Tradition : The Achievement and Limitations of an American Conservatism (Paperback)

These essays were originally a set of lectures delivered by Genovese in 1993. Genovese has written on the antebellum South for decades. In these essays he is trying to seperate the intellectual wheat from the racist chaff in a tradition of Southern conservatism. I kind of think the other reviewers missed the point on this. Genovese is very clear about certain things. 1. The origins of Southern conservatism celebrated the fact that their ideas were based on a system of property,i.e., slavery. 2. The revival of this tradition in the early 20th century that Genovese sees in the Agrarians tried mightily to divest their thought of this racial foundation. They more or less failed. Or, at least, they were not successful.
Genovese's efforts are best seen as a continuation of that project of reclaiming what is deeply human and insightful from this tradition and placing it squarely on a nonracist foundation. He doesn't claim to have done more than to suggest some of the ways that that might be done.
Ryan Setliff's review speaks to one of the main conundrums that plagues the Southern conservative tradition. Yes, the Southern conservatives saw "hierarchy and stratification as natural, necessary and proper," while "at the same time resisting a tendency toward sponsorship of a self-aggrandizing elite or artificial aristocracy". The problem is that every hierarchy ever suggested by any political tradition at any time can be shown to be artificial or self-aggrandizing. The only real way out of this theoretical dead end is to either justify it by(or hide behind) a particular religion or to move on to some other form of social and political organization. Genovese is no more successful then any one else in thinking his way out of this issue.
Genovese is very good at identifying the major issues. He understands that what has always egged on the Southern tradition has been the challenge of democracy. Their way of thinking has mostly been a national minority way of thinking and is likely to remain so. So the issues has always been (since the times of Jefferson, Madison, John Taylor et alia)how do you protect the rights (or beloved way of life) of a minority community from being swept aside by centralizing institutions, international capital or numerical majorities. This is as important a problem as the justification of authority. What the Southern tradition and related thinkers like Genovese are trying to do is to conserve as much local community control as is possible. Some of the thinkers that Genovese discussed tried to do that on the sectional level (Calhoun), some were more interested in the state level (St. George Tucker) and some proposed doing this on the county or ward level (Jefferson).
Genovese' books is full of insights for the student of American history. He does a good job of explicating Calhoun's ideas about concurrent majorities (and hints at some of its fatal flaws), he demonstrates some of the tensions between this tradition of thought and that of Jefferson and he grounds these thinkers clearly in their religious history.
It is nice to see someone coming from such an opposing tradition of thought (Marxism) explore the strengths of another tradition. It is nice to see someone like M.E. Bradford taken seriously (contemporary historians tend to give short shrift to the work of previous generations of historians). And it is nice to see someone confront honestly the racist foundation of a thinker like John Taylor of Caroline. I just cannot help but feel that the whole endeavor, while insightful, is ultimately futile. I don't think we are going to be able to think ourselves out of our present troubles and challenges by piecing together insights from many traditions. Genovese knows this as well as I do.
On the other hand, I suppose that seriously listening to each other is a good start. Genovese has been doing that for years. It is definitely worth the time reading him.