A Defender of Southern Conservatism: M.E. Bradford and His Achievements

Rating:
Summary: An excellent introduction to an often misunderstood scholar
Review: Prof. Wilson has gathered together a number of essays exploring various aspects of the thinking and writing of the late M.E. Bradford, professor of English at the University of Dallas. In addition Dr. Bradford was a rhetorician, historian, politician, and defender of the Agrarian ideal most clearly expressed this century in I'll Take My Stand but whose earliest antecedents go back to Jefferson and John Taylor of Caroline. Bradford was a candidate for chairman of the National Institute of the Humanities but whose nomination was sidetracked (by George Will, among others)when Dr. Bradford's less than laudatory writings on Lincoln came to light. The essays, contributed by Bradford intimates like Tom Landess and fellow historians Eugene and Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, reveal a man of enormous erudition who believed a society works best when it faithfully adheres to the traditions bequeathed to it by earlier generations. For Bradford, those traditions are best illuminated by the Constitution and by the literary works of men and women who honestly record the lives of a community bound by duty and honor. Let's hope this book leads to a widespread interest in Dr. Bradford's work.