The Abolitionist Imagination

Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-0-674-06444-7
Verlag: Harvard University Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 3, 224 Seiten, Format (B × H): 134 mm x 198 mm, Gewicht: 318 g

Reihe: The Alexis de Tocqueville Lectures on American Politics

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Delbanco, Andrew

Weitere Mitwirkende

Carpenter, Daniel

Stauffer, John

Sinha, Manisha

McClay, Wilfred M.

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziale Ungleichheit, Armut, Rassismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte

Über Autor(innen)

Carpenter, Daniel
Daniel Carpenter is Allie S. Freed Professor of Government at Harvard University and author of the prizewinning books <i>Reputation and Power</i> and <i>The Forging of Bureaucratic Autonomy</i>. At Harvard, he has led the creation of the Digital Archive of Antislavery and Anti-Segregation Petitions and the Digital Archive of Native American Petitions.

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 <i>Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln</i>.

Sinha, Manisha
Manisha Sinha is Associate Professor of History and Afro-American Studies at University of Massachusetts, Amherst.