William Taylor's Cavalier and Yankee was one of the most famous works of American history written in the 1960s. The book is an intellectual history of the South before the Civil War, the perception of it in the North, and the effect it had upon the nation in the years from 1800 to 1860. First published in 1961 and out of print for several years, Taylor's classic study remains essential to the study of the pre-Civil War South.
Excerpt from The Cavalier in America The twin sponsors of American colonization were two cavaliers during the days of Queen Elizabeth - Sir Humphrey Gilbert and his half brother, Sir Walter Raleigh. They conceived the idea, that to destroy the superiority of Spain, England must plant a colony in the New World. Accordingly the former obtained a patent of colo nization in 1 78, and attempted to establish a settlement in the neighborhood of Newfoundland. The attempt proved futile, and in the effort the noble Gilbert was drowned in the waves of the angry ocean. His last words will ever be kept in precious remembrance: We are as near heaven by sea as by land. The latter - Sir Walter Raleigh - the most accomplished man of his age, and a cavalier in the best sense of theword, renewed the undertaking, and in 1587 established a colony on Roanoke Island, in Pam lico Sound. Success seemed to go with the enter prise, and Queen Elizabeth gave the name Vir ginia to all North America. But a crisis in the history of England arose, and the kingdom, confronted with the Armada and the whole embattled power of Spain, had to fight for her very existence In. The mighty strife, the little group of men, women and chil dren on Roanoke Island were forgotten, and when succo-r, after three years, at length arrived, the colony had disappeared. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Many readers imagine Gavin Stevens as the character most similar to William Faulkner in all of his apocryphal Yoknapatawpha, and while Stevens was once considered the most reliable Faulknerian spokesperson, ample scholarship has demonstrated that he functions as far more than merely the author's mouthpiece. In William Faulkner, Gavin Stevens, and the Cavalier Tradition, Lorie Watkins Fulton defines Stevens's role and examines the scope of his influence. Fulton proposes that Faulkner uses similarities between himself and Stevens to voice, at a fictional remove, concerns about people of his own class and even of his own ancestry. Ultimately, she suggests that Stevens's manipulations of the law, his misunderstanding of human beings, and his rhetorically high-minded pursuit of «not so much truth as of justice, or of justice as he sees it» remove him ideologically only a degree or two away from the most terrifying dictators of the twentieth century.
From the Chief Curator of the Historic Royal Palaces in England, a vivid and captivating portrait of a seventeenth-century nobleman, his household, and the dramatic decades surrounding the English Civil War. William Cavendish embodied the popular image of a cavalier. He was both courageous and cultured. His passions were architecture, horses, and women. And, along with the whole courtly world of King Charles I and his cavaliers, he was doomed to failure. This is the story of one remarkable man, but it is also a rich evocation of what sustained him-his elaborate household. In this accessible narrative history, Lucy Worsley brings to life the complex and fascinating hierarchies among the inhabitants of the great houses of the seventeenth century, painting a picture of conspiracy, sexual intrigue, clandestine marriage, and gossip. From Ben Jonson and Anthony Van Dyck to long-forgotten servants, Cavalier recreates the cacaphony, stink, ceremony, and splendor of the stately home and its inhabitants.
