The Meaning of Name and Place

Via SHNV

An address delivered by  *Richard M. Weaver on August 10, 1950, before the annual reunion of the Weaver family.

*Richard M. Weaver (1910-1963) was a scholar, literary critic, political philosopher, historian, and champion of the Southern tradition.

 *********************

Everybody admits, I believe, that the most difficult people of all for a man to convince are the members of his own family. And since I am here before a very complete gathering of my family, I look upon my case as a trifle hard, and shan’t be surprised if I don’t convince anyone of anything.

In thinking over subjects on which I might be qualified to speak, it occurred to me to look at Weaverville and the Weaver community through a perspective of Chicago. I have been condemned for the past six years to earn my living in that most brutal of cities, a place where all the vices of urban and industrial society break forth in a kind of evil flower. I sometimes think of the University to which I am attached as a missionary outpost in darkest Chicago. There we labor as we can to convert the heathen, without much reward of success. But of course we learn many things about what is happening to this country.

More @ The Abbeville Institute