The Agrarians

They do force all southerners, as well as Americans as a whole. to look closely, and critically, at present institutions. They remind us of what people lost in the transition from a proprietary to a collective economy, even as they provoke moral doubts about the consumptive returns that most, but not all people, gained. In so far as we have accepted the bargain, tacitly consented to the new order, they at least force self-examination and create a sense of guilt. Only the most insensitive and shallow person can listen, really listen, to the Agrarians without a poignant sense of loss. This is true even for those who know all about the dark corners in the proprietary past. -Paul Conkin. The Southern Agrarians. (178)