The abolitionist imagination [electronic resource] / Andrew Delbanco ; with commentaries by John Stauffer, Manisha Sinha, Darryl Pinckney, and Wilfred M. McClay.
Delbanco, Andrew, 1952-
2012
E449 .D45 2012eb
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Title The abolitionist imagination [electronic resource] / Andrew Delbanco ; with commentaries by John Stauffer, Manisha Sinha, Darryl Pinckney, and Wilfred M. McClay.
Author Delbanco, Andrew, 1952-
ISBN 9780674064904 electronic book
0674064445
9780674064447
Imprint Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, c2012.
Language English
Description 1 online resource (xi, 205 p.)
Call Number E449 .D45 2012eb
Dewey Decimal Classification 973.7/114
Summary 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.
Bibliography, etc. Note Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note Access limited to authorized users.
Source of Description Description based on print version record.
Available in Other Form Abolitionist imagination.
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All Resources
The abolitionist imagination / Andrew Delbanco
Fighting the devil with his own fire / John Stauffer
Did the abolitionists cause the Civil War? / Manisha Sinha
The invisibility of black abolitionists / Darryl Pinckney
Abolition as master concept / Wilfred M. McClay
Rejoinder: the presence of the past / Andrew Delbanco.

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