Abstract
Allen Tate’s contribution to I’ll Take My Stand poses a challenge. He concludes his "Remarks on Southern Religion" by stating that the way the Southerner can "take hold of his tradition" is by violence. In a group of essays that has eschewed a direct, political solution to the damaging cultural effects of industrialism, Tate challenges his confederates to be activists. He writes at the end of his essay: "Since he cannot bore from within, he has left the sole alternative of boring from without. This method is political, active, and, in the nature of the case, violent and revolutionary." How are we to interpret Tate’s surprising conclusion?