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

"[A] bracingly original book." —Harold Holzer, Wall Street Journal How a band of antislavery leaders recovered the radical philosophical inspirations of the first American Revolution to defeat the slaveholders’ oligarchy in the Civil War. 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 ar