In this Book
- The Manliest Man: Samuel G. Howe and the Contours of Nineteenth-Century American Reform
- Book
- 2012
- Published by: University of Massachusetts Press
summary
A native of Boston and a physician by training, Samuel G. Howe (1801–1876) led a remarkable life. He was a veteran of the Greek War of Independence, a fervent abolitionist, and the founder of both the Perkins School for the Blind and the Massachusetts School for Idiotic and Feeble-Minded Children. Married to Julia Ward Howe, author of “Battle Hymn
of the Republic,” he counted among his friends Senator Charles Sumner, public school advocate Horace Mann, and poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Always quick to refer to himself as a liberal, Howe embodied the American Renaissance’s faith in the perfectibility of human beings, and he spoke out in favor of progressive services for disabled Americans. A Romantic figure even in his own day, he embraced a notion of manliness that included heroism under fire but also compassion for the underdog and the oppressed. Though hardly a man without flaws and failures, he nevertheless represented the optimism that characterized much of antebellum American reform.
The first full-length biography of Samuel G. Howe in more than fifty years, The Manliest Man explores his life through private letters and personal and public documents. It offers an original view of the reformer’s personal life, his association with social causes of his time, and his efforts to shape those causes in ways that allowed for the greater inclusion of devalued people in the mainstream of American life.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- List of Illustrations
- pp. vii-viii
- Acknowledgments
- pp. ix-x
- Introduction
- pp. 1-8
- 3. “The Cadmus of the Blind”
- pp. 51-85
- 4. A Phrenologist and a Superintendent
- pp. 86-118
- 5. Private Lives, Public Causes
- pp. 119-169
- 6. For Free Soil and Free Men
- pp. 170-213
- 7. War, Freedmen, and Crete
- pp. 214-254
- 8. Santo Domingo—the Perpetual Summer
- pp. 255-272
- Abbreviations
- pp. 273-274
Additional Information
ISBN
9781613762028
Related ISBN(s)
9781558499584
MARC Record
OCLC
830023546
Pages
384
Launched on MUSE
2012-11-02
Language
English
Open Access
No