A Political Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson

A vocal abolitionist before and during the Civil War, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was scorned by the South and embraced by the North as one of the nation's most prominent antislavery activists. After his death, however, the image of Emerson as a political thinker and activist faded from public memory, and he was remembered as a remote literary figure known for his writing on transcendentalism. An authoritative guide to the political thought of a revered American philosopher, A Political Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson includes seminal essays by Stanley Cavell, George Kateb, Judith Shklar, and Wilson Carey McWilliams, as well as new analyses of Emerson's recently rediscovered abolitionism in relation to his theory of self-reliance, the politics of his transcendentalism, and his theory of liberal democracy. Editors Alan M. Levine and Daniel S. Malachuk introduce the collection by reviewing the prior scholarship and explaining the political significance of Emerson's support of abolition. A Political Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson engages scholars of diverse perspectives in a comprehensive survey of the philosopher's political writings, making it an indispensable resource for students of American literature and politics.