Bertram Wyatt-Brown condensed and abridged his previous tome, Southern Honor: Ethics and Behavior in the Old South into a more compact and less verbose study, Honor and Violence in the Old South. Wyatt-Brown's intention is to describe the culture of the pre-Civil War South, how it differed from Northern cultural values, and how such cultural differences were causative agents of the Civil War. Honor is a behavioral construct. It is best described in the negative; it comprises those activities that would prevent individuals, families, and communities from experiencing public humiliation. He also believes that violence is inherent in southern culture; in addition to the violence of slavery, was the violence of duels, gaming rituals, punishment for breaking codes of honor.
Wyatt-Brown is primarily concerned with honor amongst the high brow (or the formerly high brow) of the South. The peasant class may have agreed to codes of honor and participated in ritualized violence, but it was at the instigation of or manipulation by the wealthier members of communities. Rather than writing a narrative, Wyatt-Brown writes a series of essays dealing with specific aspects of honor or violence, such as gambling, sexual honor, family, and gentility.
He is especially concerned with ethics and morality that sets the South apart from the rest of the country. By perpetuating their differences, they felt psychologically alienated and therefore set themselves up for separating politically from the rest of the country. The Civil War therefore is more about honor and the shame and humiliation that would result from outsiders dictating ethics and morality upon their communities.