DOCSLIB.ORG

Theodore Parker's Man-Making Strategy: a Study of His Professional Ministry in Selected Sermons

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Theodore Parker's Man-Making Strategy: a Study of His Professional Ministry in Selected Sermons Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 1993 Theodore Parker's Man-Making Strategy: A Study of His Professional Ministry in Selected Sermons John Patrick Fitzgibbons Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the Literature in English, North America Commons Recommended Citation Fitzgibbons, John Patrick, "Theodore Parker's Man-Making Strategy: A Study of His Professional Ministry in Selected Sermons" (1993). Dissertations. 3283. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/3283 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1993 John Patrick Fitzgibbons Theodore Parker's Man-Making Strategy: A Study of His Professional Ministry in Selected Sermons by John Patrick Fitzgibbons, S.J. A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of Loyola University of Chicago in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Chicago, Illinois May, 1993 Copyright, '°1993, John Patrick Fitzgibbons, S.J. All rights reserved. PREFACE Theodore Parker (1810-1860) fashioned a strategy of "man-making" and an ideology of manhood in response to the marginalization of the professional ministry in general and his own ministry in particular. Much has been written about Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and his abandonment of the professional ministry for a literary career after 1832. Little, however, has been written about Parker's deliberate choice to remain in the ministry despite formidable opposition from within the ranks of Boston's liberal clergy. With Emerson, Parker advocated a 11 manly 11 Christianity in terms of expressive individualism. That is, they championed the Romantic ideals of individualism and genius. Both developed compensatory strategies of manhood to counter the dominant entrepreneurial ideology of manhood at work which marginalized them. This dissertation concentrates on Parker's sermons dealing with education, the status of women, and class structure in the United States. Parker believed that the professional ministry must educate persons of all strata of society to a practical and radical care for other persons. The reason for my concentration is straightforward: Parker's man-making strategy can still inform us today because oppression and marginalization, especially of the poor and 1 women, remains embedded in the social fabric of our culture. Moreover, the professional ministry in this country continues to re-fashion itself in response to the structural evils of sexism and racism in order to educate persons beyond oppression. While African slavery is no longer a publicly sanctioned and legally protected structure in our society as it was in the time of Theodore Parker, the Anita Hill -- Clarence Thomas controversy and the Rodney King trial are poignant reminders of unfinished business. For Parker, slavery, the marginalization of women, and the oppression of minorities were evils to be overcome in time. In a democracy, as well as in Christianity (considered as absolute religion), there is no place for laws, mores, customs, or beliefs that oppress people, then or now. My interest in this topic developed while researching and writing my master's thesis in moral theology at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley. That thesis is entitled "The Emergence of Ethics in American Transcendentalism: A Study in the Sacramentality of Human Action in the Early Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau's Walden and 'Civil Disobedience."' In the last two years, because of the paucity of primary source materials, my research has taken me to the libraries at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as the Boston Public Library, and the archives of the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston, Massachusetts. This area holds the largest concentration of Parker materials. 11 I wish to thank profoundly Dr. James E. Rocks for his professional guidance, encouragement, and his gracious care. Such qualities are rare enough when encountered singly yet Dr. Rocks embodies them all. I am also grateful to Dr. Paul R. Messbarger whose professional acumen, articulate faith, and stimulating conversation were enormously encouraging. Dr. Gerald W. McCulloh guided me firmly yet gently through the complexities of nineteenth­ century Christian intellectual history with a clarity and compassion which modelled scholarship in the professional ministry. I hope to embody their professionalism and personal care. In addition, I wish to thank Sr. Rita Stalzer, C.S.J., reference librarian at the Cudahy Library of Loyola University of Chicago, for her wonderful assistance in tracking down rare materials and manuscripts. Also, thanks belong to Dr. Alan Seaburg, Curator of Manuscripts at the Andover-Harvard Theological Library, and Dr. Laura V. Monti, Keeper of Rare Books and Manuscripts at the Boston Public Library. To the Jesuit community of Chicago, I owe an incalculable debt. To all my brother Jesuits, I give my deepest thanks but especially to Richard W. Anderson, S.J., Philip J. Chmielewski, S.J., Francis J. Daly, S.J., Keith J. Esenther, S.J., Robert F. Harvanek, S.J., William H. Hogan, S.J., James D. Holub, S.J., Edward J. Mattimoe, S.J., James M. McCann, S.J., and Lawrence Reuter, S.J. I would like to thank the whole staff of University Ministry at Loyola University of Chicago for unflagging support, especially lll Angela Cesar, Brenda Eagan, I.B.V.M., Maureen Fuechtmann, Joanne G. Nicgorski, O.S.F., Shannon M. Queenan, and Annette Spiezio. Finally, my most profound thanks go to the finest friends a person could ever call one's own: Stephen Campbell, S.J., Heidi Cerneka, Thomas F. Fitzgibbons, Anne Marie and Raymond Hood, Tammy Dee Jones, Rudy Marcozzi, Lori and Michael Meehan, T. Jerome Overbeck, S.J., and William Rehg, S.J. lV AD MAJOREM DE/ GLORIAM To My Parents John Francis Fitzgibbons and Rosemary Brady Fitzgibbons TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ......................................... i Chapter 1. AN OVERVIEW OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY IN NEW ENGLAND WITH PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO THE BOSTON AREA, FROM THE EIGHTEENTH INTO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: THE CAREER OF THE PROFESSIONAL MINISTER . 1 2. THE ROLE OF THE MINISTER IN NEW ENGLAND IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY AS ARTICULATED BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON ...... 60 3. PARKER'S UNDERSTANDING OF MINISTRY, HIS SENSE OF AN AUDIENCE, AND HIS MAN-MAKING STRATEGIES . 93 4. PROPHETIC UTTERANCES ON THE REFASHIONING OF SOCIETY IN SELECTED SERMONS AND ADDRESSES ............................. 133 WORKS CONSULTED LIST . 239 CHAPTER ONE AN OVERVIEW OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY IN NEW ENGLAND WITH PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO THE BOSTON AREA, FROM THE EIGHTEENTH INTO THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: THE CAREER OF THE PROFESSTIONAL MINISTER In Church ministry of every age, there is a dynamic tension between theory and praxis, the theologian and the pastor. Questions about the relationship of theology and ministry, how theological positions generate a certain type or types of ministry, as well as how ministerial style shapes the development of theology, present themselves to ministers and theologians in every era. Clearly, the relationship of theology and ministry is reciprocal: "Theology intends an understanding of faith that is ultimately practical. Its insights are meant to shape ministry. Ministry, on the other hand, is both shaped by theology and critiques the adequacy of theological formulations to the life of the Church. "1 2 Antebellum professional ministry of the liberal caste provides no exception. Indeed the predominant task of the early nineteenth-century liberals was to shape ministry to the pastoral needs of a population whose cultural identity was going through profound change. As economic prosperity grew and a strong urban middle class emerged, so did growth in literacy and culture. The merging of careers, especially ministerial and literary careers, was very common. The "typical" New England author was a male born between 1800 and 1820 whose work appeared between 1820 and 1865. His parents were better educated and more affluent than the average New Englander. He was born in northeastern Massachusetts and reared in the same locality. He matriculated at Harvard and after college tried his hand at law, medicine, or very likely, the professional ministry. 2 "Divinity and law were each pursued, for varying lengths of time, by about one-quarter of the male writers [a total of 112 out of a total of 276]. Those who chose divinity were far less likely to give it up, perhaps because the ministry, seen as the less lucrative and prestigious career by most genteel young men, . tended to attract a more self-selected and committed group of novices than did the law" (Buell 1986, 379). For Theodore Parker, the interplay between theology and ministry, the intellectual life and the practical realities of pastoral care forged his career in as manifest a manner as it did of that of Emerson. Both Parker and Emerson 3 chose a career in ministry in an era of decline in the profession's prestige and both were among the most famous literary figures of their day. While much has been written about Emerson's change in career after 1832, relatively little has been said about Parker's perseverance as a minister or the reasons for his immense popularity. While Emerson was in great demand as a lecturer, Parker was arguably the most controversial preacher in Boston from 1843 onward and certainly the most popular preacher in Boston from 1852 until his departure for Europe in 1859 and premature death in 1860. In both careers, the new theology of Transcendentalism shaped the respective ministries. Yet, in Parker's career, the prophetic call to "self-reliance" and expressive individualism through literary endeavor remained, whatever else it was, a primarily religious enterprise.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • New—England Transcendentalism
    FRENCH PHILOSOPHERS AND NEW—ENGLAND TRAN SCENDENTALISM FRENCH PHILOSOPHERS AND NEW—ENGLAND TRANSCENDENTALISM BY WALTER L. LEIGHTON H A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LITERATURE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA Huihetg’itp of Eirginia CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA 1908 To C. W. K. WHO HAS GIVEN ME BOTH THE ENCOURAGEMENT AND OPPOR'I‘UNIT‘I." FOIL THE WRITING OF THIS THESIS . PREFACE HE writings of the Transcendentalists of New England have been from youth of especial interest to me. An investi- gation of the phenomena of New-England Transcendentalism was instigated by a reading of the chapter on 'l‘ranscendentalism in Professor Barrett Wendell’s Literary History of America. The idea of making a specialty of the French influence in its relation to New-England Transcendentalism as a subject for a doctorate thesis was intimated to me by Professor LeB. R. Briggs, Dean of the Harvard University faculty. Thanks for assistance in the course of actually drawing up the dissertation are due— first, to Dr. Albert Lefevre, professor of philosophy at the University of Virginia, for valuable suggestions concerning the definition of Transcendentalism ; next, to Dr. It. H. Wilson and adjunct-professor Dr. E. P. Dargan, of the depart— ment of Romance Languages at the University of Virginia, for kind help in the work of revision and correction, and, finally, to Dr. Charles W. Kent, professor at the head of the department of English at the University of Virginia, for general supervision of - my work on the thesis. In the work of compiling and writing the thesis I have been _ swayed by two motives: first, the purpose to gather by careful research and investigation certain definite facts concerning the French philosophers and the Transcendental movement in New England; and, secondly, the desire to set forth the information amassed in a cursory and readable style.
    [Show full text]
  • Edward Channing's Writing Revolution: Composition Prehistory at Harvard
    University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Spring 2017 EDWARD CHANNING’S WRITING REVOLUTION: COMPOSITION PREHISTORY AT HARVARD, 1819-1851 Bradfield dwarE d Dittrich University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation Dittrich, Bradfield dwarE d, "EDWARD CHANNING’S WRITING REVOLUTION: COMPOSITION PREHISTORY AT HARVARD, 1819-1851" (2017). Doctoral Dissertations. 163. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/163 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. EDWARD CHANNING’S WRITING REVOLUTION: COMPOSITION PREHISTORY AT HARVARD, 1819-1851 BY BRADFIELD E. DITTRICH B.A. St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 2003 M.A. Salisbury University, 2009 DISSERTATION Submitted to the University of New Hampshire in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English May 2017 ii ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ©2017 Bradfield E. Dittrich iii EDWARD CHANNING’S WRITING REVOLUTION: COMPOSITION PREHISTORY AT HARVARD, 1819-1851 BY BRADFIELD E. DITTRICH This dissertation has been has been examined and approved by: Dissertation Chair, Christina Ortmeier-Hooper, Associate Professor of English Thomas Newkirk, Professor Emeritus of English Cristy Beemer, Associate Professor of English Marcos DelHierro, Assistant Professor of English Alecia Magnifico, Assistant Professor of English On April 7, 2017 Original approval signatures are on file with the University of New Hampshire Graduate School.
    [Show full text]
  • Frederick Douglass
    Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection AMERICAN CRISIS BIOGRAPHIES Edited by Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer, Ph. D. Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection Zbe Hmcrican Crisis Biographies Edited by Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer, Ph.D. With the counsel and advice of Professor John B. McMaster, of the University of Pennsylvania. Each I2mo, cloth, with frontispiece portrait. Price $1.25 net; by mail» $i-37- These biographies will constitute a complete and comprehensive history of the great American sectional struggle in the form of readable and authoritative biography. The editor has enlisted the co-operation of many competent writers, as will be noted from the list given below. An interesting feature of the undertaking is that the series is to be im- partial, Southern writers having been assigned to Southern subjects and Northern writers to Northern subjects, but all will belong to the younger generation of writers, thus assuring freedom from any suspicion of war- time prejudice. The Civil War will not be treated as a rebellion, but as the great event in the history of our nation, which, after forty years, it is now clearly recognized to have been. Now ready: Abraham Lincoln. By ELLIS PAXSON OBERHOLTZER. Thomas H. Benton. By JOSEPH M. ROGERS. David G. Farragut. By JOHN R. SPEARS. William T. Sherman. By EDWARD ROBINS. Frederick Douglass. By BOOKER T. WASHINGTON. Judah P. Benjamin. By FIERCE BUTLER. In preparation: John C. Calhoun. By GAILLARD HUNT. Daniel Webster. By PROF. C. H. VAN TYNE. Alexander H. Stephens. BY LOUIS PENDLETON. John Quincy Adams.
    [Show full text]
  • The Daily Cardinal. Vol. X, No. 122 March 16, 1901
    The daily cardinal. Vol. X, No. 122 March 16, 1901 Madison, Wisconsin: [s.n.], March 16, 1901 https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/YSX6ORO7MD6K38E http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/ The libraries provide public access to a wide range of material, including online exhibits, digitized collections, archival finding aids, our catalog, online articles, and a growing range of materials in many media. When possible, we provide rights information in catalog records, finding aids, and other metadata that accompanies collections or items. However, it is always the user's obligation to evaluate copyright and rights issues in light of their own use. 728 State Street | Madison, Wisconsin 53706 | library.wisc.edu -_— F f : OF OR aR Be Sg CRS re Bee Saat m BONG GARD One oe RIS Oe AD te ear Ea Maney ee ae rer OR re i eee i Po Lee oO ill eae Ee ern er mete Ser oer Ser nme Asam Nee LAR Mane ene eck We es eS = : > eee 3 Speen esaan! , eae £ 2 ¥ i ¢ ae F ; ‘ : ie » ¢ * a & 4 / : ai <0 aaa {UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. 4 ; my ee I aca Ming ee NCR g piers Ss EARS ERS HERI at ye RAEI S a Oe ee eae so ee cee REIS DORR at Sha RAN a gr a i ea ee : i a VOL: NOM122.| J MADISON. WIS., SATURDAY, AT MARCH 16, 1901. | Price Five Cents. ee a ee RRR TAS peer el ; a8 og MISS LOEB WINS | pubtie ublic | ea charitiessall toe at reveal Forel rand | gigs SIEGE OF PEKING | Clough and Arnold.
    [Show full text]
  • The Proceedings of the Cambridge Historical Society, Volume 11, 1916
    The Proceedings of the Cambridge Historical Society, Volume 11, 1916 Table of Contents OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES .......................................................................................5 PROCEEDINGS OF THE THIRTY-SEVENTH TO THIRTY-NINTH MEETINGS .............................................................................................7 PAPERS EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS OF THE REVEREND JOSEPH WILLARD, PRESIDENT OF HARVARD COLLEGE, AND OF SOME OF HIS CHILDREN, 1794-1830 . ..........................................................11 ​ By his Grand-daughter, SUSANNA WILLARD EXCERPTS FROM THE DIARY OF TIMOTHY FULLER, JR., AN UNDERGRADUATE IN HARVARD COLLEGE, 1798- 1801 ..............................................................................................................33 ​ By his Grand-daughter, EDITH DAVENPORT FULLER BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF MRS. RICHARD HENRY DANA ....................................................................................................................53 ​ By MRS. MARY ISABELLA GOZZALDI EARLY CAMBRIDGE DIARIES…....................................................................................57 ​ By MRS. HARRIETTE M. FORBES ANNUAL REPORT OF THE TREASURER ........................................................................84 NECROLOGY ..............................................................................................................86 MEMBERSHIP .............................................................................................................89 OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY
    [Show full text]
  • Lexington and Concord
    National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Lexington and Concord: A Legacy of Conflict Minute Man National Historical Park On April 19, 1775 ten years of political protest escalated as British soldiers clashed with “minute men” at Lexington, Concord, and along the a twenty-two- mile stretch of road that ran from Boston to Concord. The events that occurred along the Battle Road profoundly impacted the people of Massachusetts and soon grew into an American war for independence and self-government. This curriculum–based lesson plan is one Included in this lesson are several pages of in a thematic set on the American supporting material. To help identify these Revolution using lessons from other pages the following icons may be used: Massachusetts National Parks. Also are: To indicate a Primary Source page Boston National Historical Park To indicate a Secondary Source page To Indicate a Student handout Adams National Historical Park To indicate a Teacher resource Lesson Document Link on the page to the Salem Maritime National Historic Site document Lexington and Concord: A Legacy of Conflict Page 1 of 19 Minute Man National Historical Park National Park Service Minuteman National Historical Park commemorates the opening battles of the American Revolution on April 19, 1775. What had begun ten years earlier as political protest escalated as British soldiers clashed with colonial militia and “minute men” in a series of skirmishes at Lexington, Concord, and along the a twenty-two-mile stretch of road that ran from Boston to Concord. The events that occurred along the Battle Road profoundly impacted the people of Massachusetts and soon grew into an American war for independence and self-government.
    [Show full text]
  • Property and Privacy of Conscience in Montesquieu's Spirit of the Laws
    PROPERTY AND PRIVACY OF CONSCIENCE IN MONTESQUIEU’S SPIRIT OF THE LAWS John Matthew Peterson, Ph.D. University of Dallas, 2018 Director: Joshua Parens Montesquieu’s Spirit of the Laws is a sprawling work with six untitled and seemingly unconnected parts. How are these parts related, and how, especially, does the sixth part, on the history of Roman, French, and Feudal laws, relate to the other parts? In particular, why does Montesquieu pay special attention to the evolving understanding of property in these different legal environments, and what might his treatment of this subject have to do with his more well-known treatments of liberty, commerce, and religion? This dissertation offers answers to these questions through a close reading of the text of Spirit of the Laws, paying particular attention to Montesquieu’s use of the figure of the barbarian in parts 6, 2, and 3, and connecting these passages to books 11–12, on political liberty, and portions of book 26 on political and civil law. It connects Montesquieu’s arguments in support of political liberty—in which he implicitly makes common cause with thinkers like Hobbes and Locke—with the more determinist, historicist, and even sociological portions of his work, which have inspired a different strand of political philosophy. Finally, it gives an account of how parts 4 and 5, on commerce and religion, are based upon the first half of the book. This investigation yields the following conclusions: Montesquieu reinterprets the history of law in Europe in order to separate out the barbarian spirit from its Christian and Roman admixtures and translate it into the modern context.
    [Show full text]
  • Bible Matters: the Scriptural Origins of American Unitarianism
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Vanderbilt Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive BIBLE MATTERS: THE SCRIPTURAL ORIGINS OF AMERICAN UNITARIANISM By LYDIA WILLSKY Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In Religion May, 2013 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Professor James P. Byrd Professor James Hudnut-Beumler Professor Kathleen Flake Professor Paul Lim Professor Paul Conkin TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………3 CHAPTER 1: WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING AND THE PASTORAL ROOTS OF UNITARIAN BIBLICISM………………………………………………………………………………..29 CHAPTER 2: WHAT’S “GOSPEL” IN THE BIBLE? ANDREWS NORTON AND THE LANGUAGE OF BIBLICAL TRUTH………………………………………...................................................77 CHAPTER 3: A PRACTICAL SPIRIT: FREDERIC HENRY HEDGE, THE BIBLE AND THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH…………………………………………………………………...124 CHAPTER 4: THE OPENING OF THE CANON: THEODORE PARKER AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF BIBLICAL AUTHORITY…………………………………………..168 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………...........................205 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………213 INTRODUCTION The New England Unitarians were a biblical people. They were not biblical in the way of their Puritan ancestors, who emulated the early apostolic Church and treated the Bible as a model for right living. They were a biblical people in the way almost every Protestant denomination of the nineteenth century
    [Show full text]
  • Commerce 2009 Combined AR
    2009 annual report anD form 10-k commerce inc. BancShareS, 2009 annual report anD form report annual 10 -k positioned for growth commerce BancShareS, inc. 1000 Walnut p.o. Box 419248 kanSaS city, mo 64141-6248 Phone: (816) 234-2000 (800) 892-7100 Email: [email protected] Web site: www.commercebank.com An Equal Opportunity Employer MK2909 COMPANY PROFILE SEVEN KEY MARKETS 1. Kansas City 2. St. Louis 3. Peoria/Bloomington 4. Springfield 5. Wichita 6. Tulsa Branch Footprint 7. Denver Extended Market Area Commerce Bancshares, Inc. operates as a super- financial products to consumer and commercial community bank offering an array of sophisticated customers, including lending, payment processing, financial products delivered with high-quality, trust, brokerage and capital markets services. personal customer service. The company’s customer Serving its customers from 374 locations in Missouri, promise ask listen solve is not just its brand but Kansas, Illinois, Oklahoma and Colorado and from also its corporate focus. With this platform, Commerce commercial offices throughout the nation’s mid- is continually building its long-term franchise while section, Commerce uses a variety of delivery platforms paying strict attention to asset quality and expense including an expansive ATM network, full-featured management. Commerce provides a full range of online banking and a central contact center. COMMERCE BANCSHARES, INC. AT A GLANCE • $18.1 billion in assets • 90% of the company’s profitability comes from • Super-community bank seven key markets including Kansas City; • 374 locations St. Louis; Peoria/Bloomington, Illinois; Springfield, • 5,125 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees Missouri; Wichita, Kansas; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Denver, Colorado.
    [Show full text]
  • American Liberal Pacifists and the Memory of Abolitionism, 1914-1933 Joseph Kip Kosek
    American Liberal Pacifists and the Memory of Abolitionism, 1914-1933 Joseph Kip Kosek Americans’ memory of their Civil War has always been more than idle reminiscence. David Blight’s Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory is the best new work to examine the way that the nation actively reimagined the past in order to explain and justify the present. Interdisciplinary in its methods, ecumenical in its sources, and nuanced in its interpretations, Race and Reunion explains how the recollection of the Civil War became a case of race versus reunion in the half-century after Gettysburg. On one hand, Frederick Douglass and his allies promoted an “emancipationist” vision that drew attention to the role of slavery in the conflict and that highlighted the continuing problem of racial inequality. Opposed to this stance was the “reconciliationist” ideal, which located the meaning of the war in notions of abstract heroism and devotion by North and South alike, divorced from any particular allegiance. On this ground the former combatants could meet undisturbed by the problems of politics and ideological difference. This latter view became the dominant memory, and, involving as it did a kind of forgetting, laid the groundwork for decades of racial violence and segregation, Blight argues. Thus did memory frame the possibilities of politics and moral action. The first photograph in Race and Reunion illustrates this victory of reunion, showing Woodrow Wilson at Gettysburg in 1913. Wilson, surrounded by white veterans from North and South, with Union and Confederate flags flying, is making a speech in which he praises the heroism of the combatants in the Civil War while declaring their “quarrel forgotten.” The last photograph in Blight’s book, though, invokes a different story about Civil War memory.
    [Show full text]
  • Xerox University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 I I 75-3032
    INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation.
    [Show full text]
  • Charles Ammi Cutter
    CHAPTER I EARLY LIFE AND HARVARD STUDENT YEARS Early Years Charles Ammi Cutter was a member of a nineteenth century family that can be described as, "solid New England stock." The members had a pride in ancestry "not so much because their forbears were prominent in the social, polit- ical, or financial world, but because they were hard-working, plain-living, clear-thinking, and devout people, with high ideals.,,1 The Cutter fa_ily had its start in America with the arrival in Massachusetts from Newcastle-on-Tyne in Eng- land of the widow, Elizabeth Cutter, and her two sons about 1640. Through her son, Richard, she became the progenitress of descendants who, each in his own way, helped to civilize the colonial wilderness and who played a part in bringing the young nation through its revolutionary birth pains. 2 The Cutters were primarily farmers and merchants but included among their ranks clergymen, physicians, and later, 1 W. P. Cutter, Charles Ammi Cutter, p. 3. 2The principal sources for Cutter genealogical materi­ als are Benjamin Cutter, A Histor of the Cutter Famil of New England, revised and enlarged by William R. Cutter Bos­ ton: David Clapp and Son, 1871), passim; William R. Cutter, comp., Genealo ical and Personal Memoirs Relatiri to the Families of the State of Massachusetts 4 vols.; New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1910), III, passim. 1 2 soldiers. For example, Ammi Ruhamah Cutter (1735-1810) served as a physician during the second capture of Louisburg 1 during the French and Indian War. He later distinguished himself as Physician General of the Eastern Department of the Continental Army.
    [Show full text]