Description
Book SynopsisThis unique account of the life of Charles Follen--German nationalist and revolutionary, Harvard professor, Unitarian minister, and abolitionist--opens a window on several worlds during the first half of the nineteenth century.
Trade ReviewSpevak has written the first comprehensive biography of Charles Follen...[It] is clearly written; his perceptive analysis places Follen in the broadest context; and his research is superb. The 48 pages of notes reflect Spevak's extensive work in primary sources in Europe and the U.S. Highly recommended for research collections and those with special emphasis on 19th-century American social reform, Unitarianism, and abolitionist thought. -- R. Detweiler * Choice *
Apart from its detailed attention to political and personal relationships among German activist groups, Spevack's method is primarily an intellectual history that draws on careful reading of key texts. Follen's draft constitution for a united Germany, his nationalist poetry, his lectures as professor of German language and literature at Harvard, and his theological and antislavery essays come in for close scrutiny, as do many other works by Follen and thinkers he read. -- Thomas J. Brown * Journal of the Early Republic *
A sweeping and fascinating description and analysis of the intellectual and political connections between two cultures [Germany and America] in the early nineteenth century. -- Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Unity and Freedom Freedom and Violence Stages of Exile German Culture and American Reform Religion and Freedom Slavery and Liberation Conclusion Notes Index
