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 xiii
... effect that determines the progress of human events . This implication has no basis in reality , since the Futurist actually means to break off all connection with the histori- cal process of cause and effect and to substitute for it an ...
... effect that determines the progress of human events . This implication has no basis in reality , since the Futurist actually means to break off all connection with the histori- cal process of cause and effect and to substitute for it an ...
Page xiv
... effect , would not accept Davidson's or Allan Tate's papers as gifts . For that matter , the literate South generally ne- glected those Agrarians , the most illustrious of southern sons , in their own time . Only when New York paid ...
... effect , would not accept Davidson's or Allan Tate's papers as gifts . For that matter , the literate South generally ne- glected those Agrarians , the most illustrious of southern sons , in their own time . Only when New York paid ...
Page 10
... effect a statesman , or at least an adviser to the state in one form or another . The new conception of sec- tionalism has quickly found its way into the discussions and plans of the corps of experts , on the stage or behind the scenes ...
... effect a statesman , or at least an adviser to the state in one form or another . The new conception of sec- tionalism has quickly found its way into the discussions and plans of the corps of experts , on the stage or behind the scenes ...
Page 13
... effect upon the character of the people and upon the great issues arising in economic and political fields . The en- thusiastic historians carried the theory far . Sometimes they seemed more like myth - makers than historians . The ...
... effect upon the character of the people and upon the great issues arising in economic and political fields . The en- thusiastic historians carried the theory far . Sometimes they seemed more like myth - makers than historians . The ...
Page 19
... effect a sectional union , have developed a technique of compromise and legis- lative adjustment that permits the matured sections a kind of unofficial autonomy . But in Europe , separatism went on unchecked after the tradition of a ...
... effect a sectional union , have developed a technique of compromise and legis- lative adjustment that permits the matured sections a kind of unofficial autonomy . But in Europe , separatism went on unchecked after the tradition of a ...
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