Beschreibung:
Michael Stoneham is an Academy Professor in the Department of English at the United States Military Academy.
This exceptional book sheds new light on how John Brown inspired Americäs most significant intellects, such as Whittier, Whitman, Melville, Howells, Emerson and Thoreau, to take a public stand against the inertia of moral compromise and social degeneracy, bringing the nation to the brink of civil war.
1. Introduction 2. John Brown: "A Muse of Fire" 3. Translating a Terrorist: The Business of Public Intellectuals 4. Confronting Conspirators: Re-examining Thoreau's "A Plea for Captain John Brown" 5. "Self-Reliance:" Emerson's Antidote to Political Abdication and Judicial Compromise 6. In the Shadow of John Brown: Refusing Violence in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Dred. 7. Epilogue. Appendix A: Letter from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Charles Wesley Slack. Appendix B: Letter from Theodore Parker to Charles Wesley Slack. Appendix C: Letter from Frederick Douglass to Charles Wesley Slack. Notes. Works Cited. Index.