av John Devanny
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The occasional essay was characterised by its personal and conversational style. It dealt usually with things of contemporary interest but with an insight and humane attention superior to ordinary discussion. It wore its considerable learning lightly and sometimes revealed a little gentle humour. John Devanny's work is in the great tradition of Southern essayists like Poe, Simms, Weaver, Davidson, O'Connor, and Percy. Excerpts: "This modest collection is designed to express the mentalitie' of a Southern conservative who holds to the old verities of faith and family, place, tradition, and custom. And who views history, and politics, and culture through the lens of not just changes, but important continuities." " . . . we know our good Yankee progressive cannot stop at the borders of his home state; He wants to bring the City on the Hill to you, whether you want it or not. ">'' . . . once the impious destroys the ties to tradition and piety, so too are the virtues that are allow for civilisation to be sundered. . . . One can reject the patrimony, but once the house is pulled down and the Jacobin has sown the wind, what then shall he reap?">Essays: Musings on DislocationFall PlantingM.R. DucksFootball and the SouthHow 'bout a Little Bourbon with Your Philosophy?Gentleman Bob and the Decline of the SouthGuns, Yankees, and SuchPietas in the Era of RevolutionThrough a Glass Darkly: Justice Kavanaugh and the Triumph of Symbol over RealityThe Blundering Generations and the Crises of LegitimacyContested Ground: Southern Identity and the Southern TraditionThe Sins of Harper LeeAll Slavery, All the TimeA Society with SlavesJohn Randolph and the Formation of an American Conservative PersuasionPoison Under the Wings: The Constitution and Its DefectsZombies No More: Secession, Nullification, and the AcademyWhat We Have to ExpectRhetoric, Reality, and the Late UnpleasantnessSouthern Populism and the South's Agrarian IdentityWhere the Grapes of Wrath are Stored: The Reconstruction of Southern ReligionThe Late Unpleasantness: Memory, Meaning and Understanding