The Idea of A Southern Nation

by John M. McCardell Jr.

As the nineteenth century began, the United States was a country in search of definition, of national character. Like other Americans, Southerners found the process of national self-definition urgent and exhilarating.

But a series of shocksâ social, economic, intellectual, and, finally, politicalâ gave an increasingly distinctive twist to the ideology of nationalism that developed in the South. By 1860, through agreeing with the North over constitutional fundamentals and sharing with other Americans similar hopes and fears, many Southerners had concluded that only in a separate Southern nation could their rights and security be preserved. This book is a study of how and why the ideology of Southern nationalism arose and spread. It attempts to explain within the framework of an evolving national character how Northern and Southern versions of American nationalism, both of which professed allegiance to the Constitution, led to civil war.

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction, American Civil War, 19th Century

405 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1979

About the author

John Malcolm McCardell, Jr. (born June 17, 1949)is the Vice Chancellor of The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, and the president emeritus and a professor of history at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont. He retired as president in June, 2004, after serving thirteen years as the fifteenth president of the college.

Reviews

[Colleen Browne]

This book chronicles the development of American nationhood. In 1787, America was a fairly homogenous place but as time progressed and slavery died out in the North, the South began to feel under pressure about their most prized "peculiar" institution. After Britain had abolished slavery, and with the advent of abolition in the States, the South began to feel that its lifestyle was under threat. It was becoming clear that the South could not continue to control the national government as it had for so long. The North was industrializing at a quick pace and producing jobs that attracted immigrants to that part of the country. With its system of labor, the Southern population could not keep pace with the North; in fact, through commercial conventions, industrialization was rejected in that part of the country leaving it vulnerable to more Northern control of the government.

In this exceptionally well researched book, McCardell traces the very conscious attempt by America to develop its own literature, culture, and traditions. At the same time, Southerners, sensitive to the perception of the time that Northerners were more advanced than they, worked toward developing their own schools, producing their own teachers, and doing their own publishing, which heretofore been done by Northerners. There was even talk of developing a Southern language. They wanted the world to understand that they were a different from Northerners; were descended from more aristocratic lines and that their civilization was a gentile, chivalrous one very unlike that of the North. The problem was, try as they might, their differences with the North always came back to slavery and their insecurity about being able to keep it.

This is a very well written and interesting read but I felt that the conclusion was a bit weak. "By 1860. . .Southerners were convinced that their interests and those of the nation at large. . . were incompatible. They decided that only in a separate Southern nation could they preserve their constitutional rights." p. 336-337. While this may be true, it is really not the point that the author came back to repeatedly throughout the book. Why not state specifically what rights these were. In other words, why not simply state the truth that the South was afraid that the North, under the leadership of the Republican Party, would abolish slavery. The South had, from the beginning controlled the national government and been able to balance slave with free states but would no longer be able to do that. Slavery was at the core of secession; it was at the core of the differences that separated the two sections; it caused the war.