Dueling Cultures, Damnable Legacies

“In this book James Welborn makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the intersection of religion and honor culture in the antebellum South. While other scholars have often painted with a broad brush, Welborn’s rich account of the inner lives of two generations of white men in Edgefield is the first to study this relationship as lived by particular people in a particular place.” - Robert Elder, Baylor University, author of Calhoun: American Heretic

“Perhaps no person epitomized the violence of the Civil War era South more than Edgefield, South Carolina’s most famous resident: Preston Brooks. In this compelling and gracefully written study, Welborn dives into the peculiar world of Brooks’s hometown to reveal a form of toxic masculinity that alternately exposed and resolved the tensions between Christian piety and Southern honor. This pervasive sense of 'righteous honor,' Welborn explains, consumed the minds and actions of elite white men far beyond Edgefield, leading them to commit acts of violence in the name of God. The prevalence of 'righteous honor' in today’s world should come as no surprise, as Welborn explains how this ethos survived the Civil War and continues to flourish in the present.” - Lisa Tendrich Frank, author of The Civilian War: Confederate Women and Union Soldiers during Sherman's March