Abbeville Institute Summer School: “Understanding the South and the Southern Tradition.”

Many FPR readers may be interested in attending the Abbeville Institute’s Eleventh Annual Summer School: “Understanding the South and the Southern Tradition.” It will be held at St. Christopher Conference Center, Seabrook Island, South Carolina, July 21-26, 2013. Abbeville describes the event as follows:

“The South” is older than the United States. Whether measured by population, territory, or historical and cultural importance, it is a huge part of the American story and larger in significance than many independent nations. Yet the South is usually seen today under the unexamined and unstated assumption that it is merely a defective or evil deviation from the American norm. The South is usually defined as the internal alien, that which contrasts with and highlights the virtues of the mainstream. 

But suppose learned scholars were to investigate and portray the South like any other human experience—to understand it on its own terms and to find what it offers of lasting value? That is exactly what the Abbeville Institute Summer Schools do—with lectures presenting what is different and valuable in Southern religion, history, literature, music, agrarianism, Constitutional understanding, and way of life…

FACULTY. James Kibler, Lee Cheek, Donald Livingston, Carey Roberts, Kyle Sinisi, Samuel Smith, Bill Wilson, Clyde Wilson.

TOPICS: Foundations of Southern Literature, Southern Constitutionalism, The North and the Moral Challenge of Slavery, The South and the Moral Challenge of Slavery, Robert E. Lee, the Exemplary Southerner, The South and the Modern World, The Origin of All Things Southern, Beware the Historians: Ruminations on Secession and War, The Older Religiousness of the South, plus A Yankee in Rebel Clothing: The Fundamentalist Movement in the South.

I highly recommend Abbeville’s educational events. Their programs have greatly enhanced my own knowledge and understanding of the Southern American Tradition. See the Abbeville Institute website for more information about enrolling in this year’s summer school.