I Came Out of the Eighteenth Century

Series Editor’s Preface

ix series editor’s preface Mark Bauerlein’s trenchant introduction and William Craig Rice’s edifying afterword to John Andrew Rice’s, I C ame O ut of the Eighteenth C entury, help us properly understand the life and times of an unusually keen mind. Republished in its entirety for the first time since its suppression in the 1940s, the memoir tells the story of Rice’s early and middle years (from the mid-1890s to the mid-1930s). It also tells us about the South. In 1933, Rice helped establish Black Mountain College in an effort to introduce a progressive form of higher education in North Carolina. Rice was a candid man, a teller of cold truths, irking university chancellors and challenging readers alike.And,as William Craig Rice shows,it cost him.But his candor benefits us. John Andrew Rice spoke his mind with wit and acid and, in the process, left us some invaluable insights, always keen and sharp, about the South, religion, sin, education, racial injustice, slavery, poverty, southern whites, and the nature of southern politics. It is a powerful and enduring piece of southern nonfiction and is a welcome addition to the Southern Classics Series. mark m. smith ...