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The South and Southern History

by Clyde Wilson

PART 1

Basic Books

Literature about the South and Southern history is vast – largely because non-Southerners have always found the South interesting. The greatest part of this literature is written from the viewpoint of the outsider diagnosing sin (in the 19th century) or pathology (since). The assumption apparently is that any people who don't want to be like Massachusetts must be either sick or evil.

Some of the "authorities" who spend their time studying the South even say, strangely, that it does not exist – it is merely a delusion created by bigotry and pellagra – though nothing could be more obvious than that Southerners have a separate historical experience and culture.

Despite the overwhelming mass of negative and distorted literature, there are many books, old and new, that are sympathetic or even-handed and that convey real knowledge about the region that one good history book defines as "not quite a nation within the nation, but the next thing to it."

A certain number of outsiders, generally morally and intellectually superior to the critics, have always found the South interesting and admirable. Remember the vast popularity of Gone With the Wind.

That Southerners agreed to go into a Union with Northerners in 1789 has made them available for endless attention and correction. If they were politically separate, Northerners would have no basis for assuming moral and economic dictatorship over Southerners. It is also true that much "American" history is actually Southern history.

Southern history that is well regarded (like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson used to be) becomes "American," which makes it non-Southern, which absorbs it into Northern. To most writers only the "bad" history is "Southern" – Andrew Jackson is "American," while Nathan Bedford Forrest, who came out of the same place and culture a generation later, is "Southern." Works cited are generally in print or otherwise fairly easily obtainable except those marked with *. The latter will probably require a very good library or a serious used book search.

General Works

The best (rather, the only good) overall history of the Southern region and people is quoted in the third paragraph above. That book is A History of the South by Francis Butler Simkins, first published by Knopf in 1947. It went through many editions, with suitable revisions by Charles Pierce Roland, until it was suppressed some time in the 1970s. It is a good place to start reading Southern history. It sold widely as a textbook and there are many used copies around.

When approaching the history of a people, it is good to start with their particular spirit, which is the most important and the most continuous thing. For this purpose there is much good recent or available material:

John Shelton Reed's straightforward essay on "Southerners" in The Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, a reference work that is usually available in larger public libraries. See also Reed's The Enduring South.

The best-selling works of Ronald and Donald Kennedy, The South Was Right, Why Not Freedom?, and Was Jefferson Davis Right?

The works of M.E. Bradford, any and all. Some will be mentioned later. For the moment: A Better Guide than Reason, Remembering Who We Are, and The Reactionary Imperative.

The works of Richard M. Weaver, any and all, starting with The Southern Essays of Richard M. Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences, and Visions of Order.

The Creed of the Old South*, a pair of beautiful essays by Basil L. Gildersleeve. The author was the greatest American classical scholar and a Confederate soldier who explained things to fair-minded Northerners after Reconstruction.

Discussions: Secular by the Rev. Robert Lewis Dabney. Dabney was a great theologian and a close friend of Stonewall Jackson who brilliantly expressed the Southern viewpoint on many recurrent public issues. The work has been reprinted by Sprinkle Publications as vol. 4 of Dabney's works.

Then, the classic by Twelve Southerners, I'll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition. Less well-known but equally important is its sequel, Who Owns America?.

See also Regionalism and Nationalism in the United States (originally titled Attack on Leviathan) by the Southern poet and essayist Donald Davidson, and Fifteen Southerners, Why the South Will Survive*.

The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, coedited by Bill Clinton's choice to head the NEH, can be safely ignored except for subjects having to do with 20^th-century popular culture like "The Beverly Hillbillies."

Another good general reference that should be in many public libraries is Jay B. Hubbell, The South in American Literature.

Let me call attention to a set of general histories of the United States from a Southern viewpoint. Waddy Thompson wrote, beginning in the early 20th century, high-school texts which went through numerous editions and were widely used in public schools in the South up until recent decades. These are perfect for homeschoolers who need a straightforward, honest account of history. The same can be said for J. Steven Wilkins, America: The First 350 Years. The magnificent Mises Institute publications contain much that bears on The War, "Reconstruction," and Constitutional issues. To wit, John V. Denson, ed., Costs of War and Reassessing the Presidency; and David Gordon, ed., Secession, State, and Liberty.