Regionalism and Nationalism in the United States: The Attack on LeviathanTransaction Publishers - 368 pages A quarter of a century before Lyndon B. Johnson popularized the slogan "The Great Society," Donald Davidson wrote his critique of Leviathan, the omnipotent nation-state, in terms that only recently have come to be appreciated. "Leviathan is the idea of the Great Society, organized under a single, complex, but strong and highly centralized national government, motivated ultimately by men's desire for economic welfare of a specific kind rather than their desire for personal liberty. " Originally published as The Attack on Leviathan, this eloquent volume is an attack on state centralism and an affirmation of regional identity. Davidson's work is a special sort of intellectual as well as social history. It reveals an extraordinary mastery of the literature on regionalism in the United States, with special emphasis on the work on Rupert Vance and Howard Odum in the social sciences. Davidson looks at regionalism in arts, literature, and education. He favors agriculture over industrialization, and "the hinterland" over cities, examining along the way varying historical memories, the dilemma of Southern liberals, and the choice of expedience or principles. His book is a forceful and commanding challenge to those who would push for central authority at the sacrifice of individual and regional identity. Davidson concludes with a devastating critique of nationalism leading to a supra-nationalism. Ultimately, the heterogeneity of human desires comes up against the uniformity of world systems and world states. Davidson offers instead a broad world of intellectual history and commentary in which individualism allies itself with communities as a means for stemming the tide of collectivism and its base in a world state. For Davidson, Leviathan, the monstrous state, is a devourer, not a savior. As several peoples rise to strike down their own Leviathans, this courageous book may be better understood now than it was in 1938. Donald Davidson was part of that movement in American letters known as the Southern Agrarians. He was a poet, critic, historian, and political analyst. He spent most of his life at Vanderbilt University, and was himself born in central Tennessee. He is best known as the author of The Tall Men (1927) and a collection of essays, Still Rebels, Still Yankees (1957). |
From inside the book
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Page vii
... economic welfare of a specific kind rather than their desire for personal liberty . " Fifty - two years later , Leviathan looms larger than ever . The Southern States that once formed the Confederacy have been the most conservative ...
... economic welfare of a specific kind rather than their desire for personal liberty . " Fifty - two years later , Leviathan looms larger than ever . The Southern States that once formed the Confederacy have been the most conservative ...
Page xiii
... economic and social fallacies . In person , Davidson was a lean and austere gentleman who smiled rarely ; his conversation , nevertheless , was lively , and he was a kindly host . He had been a courageous soldier before I was born , and ...
... economic and social fallacies . In person , Davidson was a lean and austere gentleman who smiled rarely ; his conversation , nevertheless , was lively , and he was a kindly host . He had been a courageous soldier before I was born , and ...
Page xvi
... economic prosperity . It is factory - town prosperity . The rural pattern of existence , which the Agrarians praised , still endures here and there south of Mason's and Dixon's Line , but it has been brutally buffeted during the past ...
... economic prosperity . It is factory - town prosperity . The rural pattern of existence , which the Agrarians praised , still endures here and there south of Mason's and Dixon's Line , but it has been brutally buffeted during the past ...
Page 3
... economic determinism , to be in patent conflict with supposed realities . Writing of the early debates over strict and liberal interpre- tations of the Constitution , Beard says : If some of the minor politicians thought their ...
... economic determinism , to be in patent conflict with supposed realities . Writing of the early debates over strict and liberal interpre- tations of the Constitution , Beard says : If some of the minor politicians thought their ...
Page 8
... economic forces that seemed to be making America an area of unvarying uniformity also devoted some of the fruits of their labor to the endowment of historical research . A zeal for a slow and orderly form of retrospect became a by ...
... economic forces that seemed to be making America an area of unvarying uniformity also devoted some of the fruits of their labor to the endowment of historical research . A zeal for a slow and orderly form of retrospect became a by ...
Contents
3 | |
13 | |
Social Science Discovers Regionalism | 39 |
Regionalism in the Arts | 65 |
The Political Economy of Regionalism | 102 |
IMMOVABLE BODIES AND IRRESISTIBLE FORCES | 129 |
Still Rebels Still Yankees | 131 |
New York and the Hinterland | 155 |
American Heroes | 212 |
Literature | 228 |
Regionalism and Education | 240 |
The Dilemma of the Southern Liberals | 261 |
Howard Odum and the Sociological Proteus | 285 |
Expedients vs PrinciplesCrossPurposes | 312 |
The Southern Poet and His Tradition | 339 |
H G Wells | 349 |
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Regionalism and Nationalism in the United States: The Attack on Leviathan Donald Davidson Limited preview - 1938 |
Common terms and phrases
Agrarians Allen Tate American history artist Beard become Brother Jonathan Carolina Cattle Kingdom cities civilization colonial Cousin Roderick criticism Davidson differentiation diverse Donald Davidson East Eastern economic England European farm Federal government forces frontier Georgia Gopher Prairie H. L. Mencken Herbert Agar heroes hinterland historians Howard Odum Huey Long human idea imperialism industrial interest issues Jefferson Jeffersonian kind land less Leviathan liberals Lincoln literary Mark Twain means ment metropolitan Middle West modern myth nature Negro never nineteen-twenties North North Carolina Northeast Northeastern Northern Odum Odum's Old Northwest Plains poets political principles problem regional planning regionalists Russell Kirk sectional seems selfconscious social scientists society South Southeast Southern Agrarians Southern Regions Southwest T. S. Eliot tendency Tennessee theory things tion tional tradition Turner's United urban Vance Vermont Western writers Yankee York