News at Eleven: From the opening pages of "Cotton Tenants,"

it's clear that [James] Agee had an ax to grind: "A civilization which for any reason puts a human life at a disadvantage; or a civilization which can exist only by putting human life at a disadvantage . . . is worthy neither of the name or of continuance," he declares. "And a human being whose life is nurtured in an advantage which has accrued from the disadvantage of other human beings, and who prefers that this should remain as it is, is a human being by definition only, having much more in common with the bedbug, the tapeworm, the cancer, and the scavengers of the deep sea."

from The Washington Post: 'Cotton Tenants: Three Families,' by James Agee

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