Gilpin, R. Blakeslee

English

ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst

African Diaspora Archaeology NewsletterVolume 14Issue 4 December 2011 Article 1212-1-2011John Brown Still Lives! America's Reckoning WithViolence, Equality, and ChangeR. Blakeslee GilpinTulane University, rgilpin@tulane.eduFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/adanThis New Books is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in African DiasporaArchaeology Newsletter by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contactscholarworks@library.umass.edu.Recommended CitationGilpin, R. Blakeslee (2011) "John Brown Still Lives! America's Reckoning With Violence, Equality, and Change," African DiasporaArchaeology Newsletter: Vol. 14 : Iss. 4 , Article 12.Available at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/adan/vol14/iss4/12New Book John Brown Still Lives! America's Reckoning With Violence, Equality, and Change By R. Blakeslee Gilpin University of North Carolina Press, Cloth, 304 pp., ISBN-13: 9780807835012, 2011.  Description from the Publisher:  From his obsession with the founding principles of the United States to his cold-blooded killings in the battle over slavery's expansion, John Brown forced his countrymen to reckon with America's violent history, its checkered progress toward racial equality, and its resistance to substantive change. Tracing Brown's legacy through writers and artists like Thomas Hovenden, W. E. B. Du Bois, Robert Penn Warren, Jacob Lawrence, Kara Walker, and others, Blake Gilpin transforms Brown from an object of endless manipulation into a dynamic medium for contemporary beliefs about the process and purpose of the American republic.  Gilpin argues that the endless distortions of John Brown, misrepresentations of a man and a cause simultaneously noble and terrible, have only obscured our understanding of the past and loosened our grasp of the historical episodes that define America's struggles for racial equality. By showing Brown's central role in the relationship between the American past and the American present, Gilpin clarifies Brown's complex legacy and highlights his importance in the nation's ongoing struggle with the role of violence, the meaning of equality, and the intertwining paths these share with the process of change. 1Gilpin: John Brown Still Lives! America's Reckoning With Violence, EqualiPublished by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst, 2011

John Brown Still Lives! America\u27s Reckoning With Violence, Equality, and Change

African Diaspora Archaeology NewsletterVolume 14Issue 4 December 2011 Article 3012-1-2011John Brown Still Lives! America's Reckoning WithViolence, Equality, and ChangeR. Blakeslee GilpinTulane University, rgilpin@tulane.eduFollow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/adanThis New Books is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in African DiasporaArchaeology Newsletter by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contactscholarworks@library.umass.edu.Recommended CitationGilpin, R. Blakeslee (2011) "John Brown Still Lives! America's Reckoning With Violence, Equality, and Change," African DiasporaArchaeology Newsletter: Vol. 14 : Iss. 4 , Article 30.Available at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/adan/vol14/iss4/30New Book John Brown Still Lives! America's Reckoning With Violence, Equality, and Change By R. Blakeslee Gilpin University of North Carolina Press, Cloth, 304 pp., ISBN-13: 9780807835012, 2011.  Description from the Publisher:  From his obsession with the founding principles of the United States to his cold-blooded killings in the battle over slavery's expansion, John Brown forced his countrymen to reckon with America's violent history, its checkered progress toward racial equality, and its resistance to substantive change. Tracing Brown's legacy through writers and artists like Thomas Hovenden, W. E. B. Du Bois, Robert Penn Warren, Jacob Lawrence, Kara Walker, and others, Blake Gilpin transforms Brown from an object of endless manipulation into a dynamic medium for contemporary beliefs about the process and purpose of the American republic.  Gilpin argues that the endless distortions of John Brown, misrepresentations of a man and a cause simultaneously noble and terrible, have only obscured our understanding of the past and loosened our grasp of the historical episodes that define America's struggles for racial equality. By showing Brown's central role in the relationship between the American past and the American present, Gilpin clarifies Brown's complex legacy and highlights his importance in the nation's ongoing struggle with the role of violence, the meaning of equality, and the intertwining paths these share with the process of change. 1Gilpin: John Brown Still Lives! America's Reckoning With Violence, EqualiPublished by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst, 2011

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John Brown Still Lives! America\u27s Reckoning With Violence, Equality, and Change

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