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lucasmiller's review against another edition
4.0
This short books is made up of an essay and four essays in response. Based on a hour long lecture an four shorter responses. I was initially drawn to the title and to Delbanco's approach. He's a real old school American Studies Guy. When I googled him he is known primarily as a Melville scholar. The title essay is good, but I was most struck by Manisha Sinha's response (which Delbanco seems to be a little hurt by in the books conclusion). But the variety of perspective offered in all of the response essays do a really good job of not only building on Delbanco's argument and expanding it, but of showing the diversity in ways one can "respond" to an essay in this manner.
This seems like a weird super deep cut of a book that I stumbled across and bought last year. The format is so intriguing to me, I wish it was employed more often. If you are interested in 19th century literature and/or the legacy of abolition check it out.
This seems like a weird super deep cut of a book that I stumbled across and bought last year. The format is so intriguing to me, I wish it was employed more often. If you are interested in 19th century literature and/or the legacy of abolition check it out.
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