From Publishers Weekly
The author of Gone with the Ivy: A Biography of Vanderbilt University and a history professor there tells the story of the Southern Agrarians, an intellectual circle that fused at Vanderbilt in the 1920s. Donald Davidson, John Crowe Ransom and Allen Tate principally created and steered the Agrarian cause which, briefly, aimed for a preservation of Southern values and ideals against encroaching industrialism and the progressive political views of "New South" thinkers. By tracing their philosophical developmentfrom their roots in the nonpolitical Fugitive poetry group to their refining of the intensely political, economic, social and religious ideas that constituted Agrarianismand by recounting the careers of the Nashville men, Conkin weaves an absorbing intellectual history and group biography. His sympathetic perspective of the Agrarians' efforts concedes that theirs was a hopeless cause, almost from the beginning. Still, many writers, including Robert Penn Warren, Robert Lowell and Robert Graves, were directly influenced by the movement. Conkin's research is flawless, his writing elegant and clear, and the lives he documents compelling, although the very uniqueness of his subjects may limit the book's appeal to those with narrow scholarly and regional interests. Illustrated. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description
The southern Agrarians were a group of twelve young men who joined, from 1929 to 1937, in a fascinating intellectual and political movement. Prominent among them were Robert Penn Warren, Allen Tate, John Crowe Ransom, and Donald Davidson. In the midst of the depression, these gifted writers tried, as did so many other intellectuals, to plot the best cultural and economic choices open to southerners and Americans as a whole. That they failed to gain most of their goals does not diminish the significance of their crusade, or the enduring values that they espoused. Interweaving group biography and intellectual history, Conkin traces how these young intellectuals came to write their classic manifesto, I'll Take My Stand, relates their political advocacy to the earlier Fugitive movement in poetry, and follows their careers after the Agrarian crusade fell apart. More than any other historian or critic, Conkin takes seriously the economic and political beliefs of these southern writers.

About the Author
Paul K. Conkin is Distinguished Professor of History, Emeritus, at Vanderbilt University.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"The Southern Agrarians were a group of twelve young men who joined, from 1929 to 1937, in a fascinating intellectual and political movement. Prominent among them were Robert Penn Warren, Allen Tate, John Crowe Ransom, and Donald Davidson. In the midst of the depression, these gifted writers tried, as did so many other intellectuals, to plot the best cultural and economic choices open to southerners and Americans as a whole. That they failed to gain most of their goals does not diminish the significance of their crusade, or the enduring values that they espoused." Interweaving group biography and intellectual history, Conkin traces how these young intellectuals came to write their classic manifesto, I'll Take My Stand, relates their political advocacy to the earlier Fugitive movement in poetry, and follows their careers after the Agrarian crusade fell apart. More than any other historian or critic, Conkin takes seriously the economic and political beliefs of these southern writers.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

The author of Gone with the Ivy: A Biography of Vanderbilt University and a history professor there tells the story of the Southern Agrarians, an intellectual circle that fused at Vanderbilt in the 1920s. Donald Davidson, John Crowe Ransom and Allen Tate principally created and steered the Agrarian cause which, briefly, aimed for a preservation of Southern values and ideals against encroaching industrialism and the progressive political views of ``New South'' thinkers. By tracing their philosophical developmentfrom their roots in the nonpolitical Fugitive poetry group to their refining of the intensely political, economic, social and religious ideas that constituted Agrarianismand by recounting the careers of the Nashville men, Conkin weaves an absorbing intellectual history and group biography. His sympathetic perspective of the Agrarians' efforts concedes that theirs was a hopeless cause, almost from the beginning. Still, many writers, including Robert Penn Warren, Robert Lowell and Robert Graves, were directly influenced by the movement. Conkin's research is flawless, his writing elegant and clear, and the lives he documents compelling, although the very uniqueness of his subjects may limit the book's appeal to those with narrow scholarly and regional interests. Illustrated. (July)

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