Idea of the American South, 1920-1941

Erscheinungsjahr 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4214-3362-2
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 97, 302 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 496 g

Reihe: The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science

Originally published in 1979. The idea of the "South" has its roots in Romanticism and American culture of the nineteenth century. This study by Michael O'Brien analyzes how the idea of a unique Southern consciousness endured into the twentieth century and how it affected the lives of prominent white Southern intellectuals. Individual chapters treat Howard Odum, John Donald Wade, John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, Frank Owsley, and Donald Davidson. The chapters trace each man's growing need for the idea of the South—how each defined it and how far each was able to sustain the idea as an element of social analysis.

The Idea of the American South moves the debate over Southern identity from speculative essays about the "central theme" of Southern history and, by implication, past the restricted perception that race relations are a sufficient key to understanding the history of Southern identity.

Autoren/Hrsg.

O'Brien, Michael

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface to the paperback edition
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I. The Legacy
Chapter 1. On the Idea of the South: Origins, Mutation, and Fragmentation
Part II. The Sociological Vision: Howard Odum
Chapter 2. Odum: Sociology in the South
Chapter 3. Odum: Southern Sociology
Chapter 4. Odum: The Failure of Regionalism entr'acte: A Still Point: John Wade
Chapter 5. Wade: A Turning Inward
Part III. The Reaction to Modernism: The Southern Agrarians
Chapter 6. John Ransom: The Cycle of Commitment
Chapter 7. Allen Tate: 'The Punctilious Abyss"
Chapter 8. Frank Owsley: 'The Immoderate Past"
Chapter 9. Donald Davidson: "The Creed of Memory"
Part IV. The Survival of Southern Identity
Chapter 10. The Idea of the South: An Interpretation
Notes
Bibliographical note
Index

Über Autor(innen)

O'Brien, Michael
Michael O'Brien was a professor of American intellectual history at the University of Cambridge who focused on Southern intellectual history. He also taught at Vanderbilt University, the University of Michigan, the University of Arkansas, and Miami University.