In this Book
- Intellectual Life and the American South, 1810-1860: An Abridged Edition of Conjectures of Order
- Book
- 2010
- Published by: The University of North Carolina Press
summary
Michael O'Brien has masterfully abridged his award-winning two-volume intellectual history of the Old South, Conjectures of Order, depicting a culture that was simultaneously national, postcolonial, and imperial, influenced by European intellectual traditions, yet also deeply implicated in the making of the American mind.
Here O'Brien succinctly and fluidly surveys the lives and works of many significant Southern intellectuals, including John C. Calhoun, Louisa McCord, James Henley Thornwell, and George Fitzhugh. Looking over the period, O'Brien identifies a movement from Enlightenment ideas of order to a Romanticism concerned with the ambivalences of personal and social identity, and finally, by the 1850s, to an early realist sensibility. He offers a new understanding of the South by describing a place neither monolithic nor out of touch, but conflicted, mobile, and ambitious to integrate modern intellectual developments into its tense and idiosyncratic social experience.
Here O'Brien succinctly and fluidly surveys the lives and works of many significant Southern intellectuals, including John C. Calhoun, Louisa McCord, James Henley Thornwell, and George Fitzhugh. Looking over the period, O'Brien identifies a movement from Enlightenment ideas of order to a Romanticism concerned with the ambivalences of personal and social identity, and finally, by the 1850s, to an early realist sensibility. He offers a new understanding of the South by describing a place neither monolithic nor out of touch, but conflicted, mobile, and ambitious to integrate modern intellectual developments into its tense and idiosyncratic social experience.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- 1 The Softened Echo of the World
- pp. 19-52
- 3 A Volley of Words
- pp. 97-140
- 4 The Shape of a History
- pp. 141-190
- 5 Pride and Power
- pp. 191-258
- 6 Philosophy and Faith
- pp. 259-314
- Epilogue: Cool Brains
- pp. 315-336
Additional Information
ISBN
9781469604015
Related ISBN(s)
9780807834008, 9780807872680, 9780807895641
MARC Record
OCLC
966883534
Pages
400
Launched on MUSE
2017-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No