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The Man in Gray: A Romance of North and South
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- GenresClassics
189 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1921
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About the author
Thomas Dixon Jr.
49 books19 followersThomas Frederick Dixon Jr. was a Southern Baptist minister, playwright, lecturer, North Carolina state legislator, lawyer, and author.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 6, 2023
A defense of the South
Dixon wrote a defense of the antebellum South in the form of a novel, just as others attacked the South in novels. Some will say that it is biased in favor of the southern people and presents an idealized view. I have no problem with that. For every bit of pro-southern writing which I have seen, there must be multiple dozens biased against my homeland. Dixon's small volume is just as true and just as false as UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.
As a novel, this book is a little tedious. Dixon seems to have been more interested in defending the South than in entertaining. It should also be noted that the word romance in the title had a different meaning in the 1800's. Three stars as entertainment, five stars for an excellent presentation of the South's point of view.
Dixon wrote a defense of the antebellum South in the form of a novel, just as others attacked the South in novels. Some will say that it is biased in favor of the southern people and presents an idealized view. I have no problem with that. For every bit of pro-southern writing which I have seen, there must be multiple dozens biased against my homeland. Dixon's small volume is just as true and just as false as UNCLE TOM'S CABIN.
As a novel, this book is a little tedious. Dixon seems to have been more interested in defending the South than in entertaining. It should also be noted that the word romance in the title had a different meaning in the 1800's. Three stars as entertainment, five stars for an excellent presentation of the South's point of view.
October 8, 2024
Thomas Dixon Jr. deserves to be more widely read among the American alt-right. His historical revisionism and race realism are a great aid to understanding the true history of the Civil War and Reconstruction period. His novels ardently and unapologetically trumpet the Lost Cause.
This is not to paint Dixon out as some kind of pro-slavery neo-confederate. His perspective is sophisticated. In short, Antebellum Dixie with its plantations, cavalier romance, and loyal slaves was a beautiful society, but one that contained the seeds of its own destruction. Negro slavery had deleterious effects on the slave owners as well as the non-slaveholding white lower class. Though the industrial wage slavery of the North was even more dehumanizing than chattel slavery, purely through economic factors the former would ultimately bring about the latter's end. Abolitionism and its lunatic fringe–racial egalitarianism–was an extremist ideology with its roots in puritan fanaticism. The Civil War was a tragedy, but the South was justified in defending attempts to destroy their society by freeing a mass of millions of an alien people into their midst and granting them equality. Lincoln was a friend of the South who wanted to preserve the integrity of the nation's blood by returning the slaves to their homeland from whence they had been stolen.
That's the historical view Dixon puts forth in his works, including The Man in Gray. This story is a fictionalized account of the antebellum and Civil War periods, following Robert E. Lee. In the middle section, the narrative is hijacked by the abolitionist terrorist John Brown, in the most memorable and intense scenes. The life of Jeb Stuart occupies a subplot. On the whole, I found it a solid and engaging novel.
This is not to paint Dixon out as some kind of pro-slavery neo-confederate. His perspective is sophisticated. In short, Antebellum Dixie with its plantations, cavalier romance, and loyal slaves was a beautiful society, but one that contained the seeds of its own destruction. Negro slavery had deleterious effects on the slave owners as well as the non-slaveholding white lower class. Though the industrial wage slavery of the North was even more dehumanizing than chattel slavery, purely through economic factors the former would ultimately bring about the latter's end. Abolitionism and its lunatic fringe–racial egalitarianism–was an extremist ideology with its roots in puritan fanaticism. The Civil War was a tragedy, but the South was justified in defending attempts to destroy their society by freeing a mass of millions of an alien people into their midst and granting them equality. Lincoln was a friend of the South who wanted to preserve the integrity of the nation's blood by returning the slaves to their homeland from whence they had been stolen.
That's the historical view Dixon puts forth in his works, including The Man in Gray. This story is a fictionalized account of the antebellum and Civil War periods, following Robert E. Lee. In the middle section, the narrative is hijacked by the abolitionist terrorist John Brown, in the most memorable and intense scenes. The life of Jeb Stuart occupies a subplot. On the whole, I found it a solid and engaging novel.
January 9, 2018
Chalk this one up to curiosity. I was aware Thomas Dixon Jr was a White Supremacist hero but I thought this book was mostly about Robert E Lee, an interesting guy. Instead, while General Lee is a character in the book, it details more about the start of the Civil War from the Southern perspective. Mr. Dixon was a fine writer when he concentrated on the settings, but his casual racist and sexist comments (of which there are many) greatly detract. I have less sympathy now for the plight of the South than I did when I started the book.
March 26, 2014
this was the first Dixon book I did not greatly like. It was not easy to follow and never got going for me.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews