In A Sacred Circle: The Dilemma of the Intellectual in the Old South, 1840-1860, Drew Gilpin Faust examines how self-described men of “genius” in the antebellum era handled their lack of institutional and social support. She asserts that William Gilmore Simms, James Henry Hammond, Edmund Ruffin, Nathaniel Beverley Tucker, and George Frederick Holmes formed a “sacred circle,” an intimate group of like-minded men dedicated to improving their personal lot in life and reforming southern society. Faust finds the group to embody the tug of war inside all men of mind in the antebellum South.I checked out this book as a preview to another more recent book she wrote a few decades later (and with a much more superior position in academia) about death and suffering during the Civil War (she was a guest on the Colbert Report, yet again promoting knowledge). The more recent book is full length; this is more of a monograph that appears to be an adaption of her doctorate.
It is okay but even for someone with an interest in the subject matter, a bit of a drudge -- reads as if something assigned during an upper level intellectual history class and not the most freely written 150 pages (plus notes) either. As the review notes, the people covered here do at times "appear to be whiners" and not overly attractive as representatives of their "circle." The subject is interesting though, including a look at a small sample as a sort of representation of intellectual life.
Overlap alert -- Hammond was referenced by Justice Blackmun in the case talked about in the "day of prayer" discussion a few entries ago. Tucker is the son of a well known constitutional analyst, St. George Tucker, and half-brother of Jeffersonian Era character, John Randolph of Roanoke.