Abolitionist Imagination Contributor(s): Delbanco, Andrew (Author), Carpenter, Daniel (Foreword by), Stauffer, John (Contribution by) |
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ISBN: 0674064445 ISBN-13: 9780674064447 Publisher: Harvard University Press OUR PRICE: $41.58 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: April 2012 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - History | United States - 19th Century - History | United States - Civil War Period (1850-1877) - Social Science | Slavery |
Dewey: 973.711 |
LCCN: 2011038252 |
Series: Alexis de Tocqueville Lectures on American Politics |
Physical Information: 0.8" H x 5.33" W x 7.83" (0.71 lbs) 224 pages |
Themes: - Chronological Period - 1851-1899 - Topical - Civil War - Chronological Period - 19th Century |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: The abolitionists of the mid-nineteenth century have long been painted in extremes--vilified as reckless zealots who provoked the catastrophic bloodletting of the Civil War, or praised as daring and courageous reformers who hastened the end of slavery. But Andrew Delbanco sees abolitionists in a different light, as the embodiment of a driving force in American history: the recurrent impulse of an adamant minority to rid the world of outrageous evil. Delbanco imparts to the reader a sense of what it meant to be a thoughtful citizen in nineteenth-century America, appalled by slavery yet aware of the fragility of the republic and the high cost of radical action. In this light, we can better understand why the fiery vision of the "abolitionist imagination" alarmed such contemporary witnesses as Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne even as they sympathized with the cause. The story of the abolitionists thus becomes both a stirring tale of moral fervor and a cautionary tale of ideological certitude. And it raises the question of when the demand for purifying action is cogent and honorable, and when it is fanatic and irresponsible. Delbanco's work is placed in conversation with responses from literary scholars and historians. These provocative essays bring the past into urgent dialogue with the present, dissecting the power and legacies of a determined movement to bring America's reality into conformity with American ideals. |
Contributor Bio(s): Delbanco, Andrew: - Andrew Delbanco is the Mendelson Family Chair of American Studies and Julian Clarence Levi Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University.Stauffer, John: - John Stauffer is Professor of English, of American Studies, and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University. He is the author of Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.Sinha, Manisha: - Manisha Sinha is Associate Professor of History and Afro-American Studies at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. |