An Emancipation of the Mind - Radical Philosophy, the War over Slavery, and the Refounding of America

This is a story about a dangerous idea-one which ignited revolutions in America, France and Haiti; burst across Europe in the revolutions of 1848; and returned to inflame a new generation of intellectuals to lead the abolition movement-the idea that all men are created equal.

In their struggle against the slaveholding oligarchy of their time, America's antislavery leaders found their way back to the rationalist, secularist and essentially atheist inspiration for the first American Revolution. Frederick Douglass's unusual interest in radical German philosophers and Abraham Lincoln's buried allusions to the same thinkers are but a few of the clues that underlie this propulsive philosophical detective story. With fresh takes on forgotten thinkers like Theodore Parker, the excommunicated Unitarian minister who is the original source of some of Lincoln's most famous lines, and a feisty band of German refugees, philosopher and historian Matthew Stewart tells a vivid and piercing story of the battle between America's philosophical radicals and the conservative counter-revolution that swept the American republic in the first decades of its existence and persists in new forms up to the present day. In exposing the role of Christian nationalism and the collusion between northern economic elites and slaveholding oligarchs, An Emancipation of the Mind demands a significant revision in our understanding of the origins and meaning of the struggle over slavery in America-and offers a fresh perspective on struggles between democracy and elite power today.

About the author

Matthew Stewart is an independent philosopher and historian who has written extensively about the philosophical origins of the American republic. His work has appeared in?The Atlantic,?The?Washington Post,?The Wall Street Journal, and more. He is currently based in London.

Product details

• Authors: Matthew Stewart
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 24.05.2025
• EAN: 9781324105039
• ISBN: 978-1-324-10503-9
• Dimensions: 140 mm x 211 mm x 23 mm
• Weight: 305 g
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; USA, Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, Political Ideologies, PHILOSOPHY / Political, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Democracy, HISTORY / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877), POLITICAL SCIENCE / Political Ideologies / Radicalism, c 1800 to c 1900, Social & political philosophy, social and political philosophy, Political structures: democracy, United States of America, USA, History of the Americas, Political ideologies and movements