The Southern Tradition at Bay: A History of Postbellum Thought

This is as brilliant a book as I've read in a long time. I found myself agreeing with so much of what Weaver discusses and finds fault with: essentially summarized as the decline of civilization as it turns against the ancient verities of the past. Two of the causes of that decline is the embrace of technology at the expense of humanity, coupled with grabbing the latest paradigms at the expense of what is real, absolute and permanently necessary in order to give life meaning, purpose and direction. This is a distillation of Weaver's thought and I am largely in agreement with his sense of the source of our culture's decline.These are all profound and significant philosophical issues but Weaver's solutions are controversial and will not work in a vast and pluralistic society. His four major solutions include the feudal concept of hierarchical society where everyone knows and accepts their place (including women, who are expected to fulfill their traditional roles as supportive of men. There is no male-female equality, which Weaver views as enervating), the ancient code of (Medieval) chivalry, the aristocratic notion of "the gentleman", and a slightly vaguer notion of a religious belief in the inscrutability of life, whose intrinsic mystery is what Weaver considers "absolute reality". In other words, we must yield ourselves to the supernatural and forego attempts at explaining nature through empirical science. Weaver has no use for empiricism as a means of comprehending nature.There were special circumstances in the South that are long gone. Most of that Southern brilliance I find in the writings of two of the South's greatest thinkers: Jefferson and Madison. They were the distillation of the region's intellectual brilliance. Unfortunately, that intellectual brilliance was economically buttressed by slavery and there's no way to limit the impact that had on subsequent history. Weaver's solutions are what he considers to be the antidote to the impact on the South of events he calls "a lost cause". He is not referring directly to the Civil War and its tragic aftermath but history is a heavy burden that cannot ever be minimized. If you want to better understand the Southern ethos and its intellectual architecture this is the book to read.

This book is a non political attempt to show what it was like in the South post Civil War. A look into what you will not see in the current narrative. A book that references the people who wrote about their times in the current tense. Highly recommend.

A long time ago a Southerner told me, "short of coming down here to live and being one of us, if you want to understand the Southern heart, read Weaver's "Southern Tradition at Bay." Got the book, read it, read it again and again.... one of the best, if not THE best book in my "Civil War" collection. Well worth the time and money.

Wonderful read and I think every Southerner should read.