Rating: 
Summary: A retrospective glace at our future
Review: The south as a region with a distinct culture and way of life is the subject of this fascinating book. It includes essays by some of the great literary minds of the mid century -- Robert Penn Warren, Allen Tate, John Crowe Ransom and Donald Davidson -- and it speaks to the great traumas unleashed by industrialism on southern culture and traditional local communities. Many memorable lines and some beautiful writing are contained within. Ransom argues that American society, in the guise of progress, was waging an unrelenting war against nature. Lytle reminds us that prophets do not come to us from cities encouraging us to buy new clothes, but rather come from the wilderness stinking of goats. The southerners here were burdened with a racial legacy that undercut their view for a time, but their basic point remains just as valid today -- do we as a society really benefit from destroying local communities, losing respect for tradition and nature, and disrupting our cherished ways of life? Carson, Toffler and Pirsig will remind us that these "romantic" southerners were actually raising important issues about the kind of culture and society we will bequeath to future generations. A proper respect for land and soil is a deep rooted American idea. It is put forward with poetry and skill by these writers. The great urban turmoils of later decades: the break up of the American family, the flight of black Americans to cities that would leave them abandoned, the great losses in nature; all of this is part of the tragedy wrought by industrialism and modernity which these writers, and others (Eliot, Chesterton) warned. This is not to suggest that this is a programatic book -- it is a poetic insight that finds a noble follower in Wendell Berry. It is an important piece of work, and not so dated as some might wish.
Rating:
Summary: The Agrarian South Vs. The Industrial North
Review: These southern writers of I'll Take My Stand, sounded like farmers, but were mostly professors who originated from the south. Many of them lived and taught outside the south, but still had Dixie on their minds. All of them were connected in some way with Vanderbilt University. These are southern gentleman writers with flowing prose and show that the south is not completely anti-intellectual, though one writer says that southerners were not into learning just for learnings's sake, like in the north. I will say anti-intellectualism does shield people from bad ideas and keeps them to the tried and true old ways. In general, the argument is that the agrarian culture of the south was superior to the industrial culture of the north. Farmers were self-sufficient and were able to remain independent from the government and the money economy by growing their own food, making their own clothes, and building their own shelters. The ideal farming which preserves the southern culture is pre-dominately subsistence farming and does not depend on money crops and the boom and bust economy. The King Cotton cash crop was criticized because once it was over-produced and prices for it fell, farmers fell into never ending debt. One writer mentions that farmers should not be into farming to get rich, but to preserve an agrarian lifestyle. It is also mentioned that farm work was not as mechanical as the factory work of the North. It was claimed that the South had more time for leisure to support a richer cultural life than the North. The North is accused of money-grubbing, emphasizing economic concerns over quality of life concerns. One writer regrets that the South did not become a hot spot for higher learning, like the North East had become. If only the South hadn't been invaded by Yankees, their culture would have developed more and became permanent! There are some complaints about cars and how the roads are detrimental to farming life and the agrarian culture of the South. In general, the authors were concerned with preserving this culture and were worried that since they lost the Civil War, they would eventually lose their culture to the industrial culture of the north. It is a good book to find out about what life was like for southerners after the war--what pressures and problems of survival they had and the poverty they faced. There is some discussion of the civil war. One author saw the war as war between two cultures that were diametrically opposed to one another. The north needed the south to live off of and so it could not let her go. It is also interesting to note that the south did not like tariffs because they were detrimental to farmers, but the north did. The problem of slavery is presented as something that was forced on America by England, since England was making a fortune off the slave trade. The south was not blamed for having the pre-dominate share of slaves until about 1830 when a fanatical abolitionist by the name of William Lloyd Garrison started circulating "stories" about "evil" slave owners who mistreated their slaves terribly. The agrarian south and its culture is a ghost of its former self, but some of these issues live own with writers like Wendell Berry who advocate going back to the farm and becoming more self-sufficient, while being less southern and more racially egalitarian. Luddites will like this book. The book shows convincely that if technology changes, it changes the culture and many people won't like those changes. The writers often seem justifiably bitter about the way things turned out for the south, with their nation and culture being conquered and all. And what can I say? The book is bedrock conservative, sometimes stultifyingly so, you'll have blow the dust off this one!
Rating: 
Summary: South will rise?
Review: This group of essays fits well into the history that made it. While almost all of them are clouded in Agrarian sentimental romanticism, the longing for a better time is a good theme to latch onto. One or two of the essays aren't really worth reading, as they border on complete and utter boredom. However, as with any book, there are messages, important social and historical ones, to be taken away from the book. Applied to recent times, it gives a unique persective on self-determination, tyranny, and even the confederate flag.
Rating:
Summary: This ol' Georgia boy says Not so fast, Y'all...
Review: Very provocative and, yes, these twelve essays strike all the right notes with romantically-inclined Southerners, as they have since their first publication in 1930. But before y'all crawl too far out on that Agrarian limb and annoint these cloistered academics as the True Scriveners of our souls, take a look at W. J. Cash, an author whose THE MIND OF THE SOUTH takes the real measure of our regional culture and is the touchstone for every subsequent commentary. Unlike the Agrarians who saw the Idea of Progress as a predation thrust upon the happy Southerner from external hands and responded in righteous fashion by circling their wagons, Mr. Cash finds in the Southern character itself more than a few reasons to survive the 20th Century while celebrating our storied past. Casting a knowledgeable glance at the twelve essayists, he spies more dewy-eyed nostalgia than either the historical facts or the South's subsequent prospects merit. DO READ the Twelve Southerners and cherish the plentiful insights you'll take away, but understand in doing so that their eloquent, defiant stand masked just one generation's reaction to rapidly changing times. A slightly longer perspective (and less inclination to propagandize) would have served us better. If they've warmed to I'LL TAKE MY STAND, contemplative Southerners will walk a good bit taller and sleep more soundly after making Mr. Cash's acquaintance.
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