Wyatt-Brown, Bertram. Southern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old South. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982).

Brown traces the origins and development of Southern honor in varied aspects of the lives of men in the Old South, emphasizing its importance it played in virtually all aspects of the life of gentlemen. He begins by exploring the origins and different kinds of honor that arose. He next discusses family life and the behavior of men and women. Finally, he tries to tie together the community and the individual. In doing so, he incorporates much of the findings of the new social history being done. The concept of honor held by the gentlemen of the Old South is somewhat foreign to the people of today. Thus one cannot truly understand to what extent the idea of honor affected virtually every aspect of everyday life. Any unpleasantries of the arcane system of Victorian chivalry are swept under the rug of the legendary conception of the South. Brown attempts to retrieve them and to demonstrate their importance in defining Southern antebellum life.