Terrible Swift Sword: The Legacy of John Brown (review)

Terrible Swift Sword: The Legacy of John Brown comprises papers originally presented at a multidisciplinary symposium, the first on the topic. John Brown, and especially his violent 1859 raid on the national arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, has long fascinated a broad cross-section of scholars and writers. Essayists' areas of expertise here include various social sciences, archaeology, literature, and cultural studies.

Similar to the radical abolitionist himself, this anthology is not only multidimensional, but sometimes contradictory and certain to stir debate, not only about Brown, but about legitimate scholarly approaches to historical topics. Unlike Brown, however, these wide-ranging analyses do not maintain a tight grip on their objective which is, according to the title, an examination of the radical abolitionist's legacy. Essays in part one, for example, are not tied very closely to the meaning of the Brown heritage, but instead address contemporaries and supporters of Brown, including Theodore Parker, Thomas W. Henry, and the local black community around Harper's Ferry.

Elsewhere, the collection generally stays more on target. A clinical psychologist assesses Brown's mental health using current diagnostic criteria and concludes that he probably suffered from bipolar disorder. Another contributor continues the behavioral analysis by examining Brown's actions alongside historical and criminal conceptions of terrorism. Essays by two historians tie Brown's legacy of martyrdom to a shifting historical context in the United States and reveal the mileage post-bellum Southern writers made out of Brown's fanaticism. Readers will understand how Brown can be remembered concurrently as a murderer and martyr, terrorist and hero—with reasonable arguments possible in support of each designation.

The issue of Brown's legacy probably receives its fullest expression in sections that examine his literary and iconographic representations. Poetry written the year of Brown's raid and subsequent execution, for example, reveals the sizeable hurdle his violent actions presented to most would-be eulogizers. Nearly a century later, the release of Hollywood's only two major depictions of Brown not only stirred audiences, but revealed their preference for glamorous, well-known actors over historical accuracy. (Some things seem never to change.) Finally, truth takes another postmodernist scolding, this time from novelist Bruce Olds, author of Raising Holy Hell, an award-winning fictional book about Brown. Olds fires a volley at historians who believe the narratives they construct are necessarily superior to those created by historical novelists like himself. If nothing else, this essay will ignite some interesting discussions.

In 1995 Finkelman edited His Soul Goes Marching On: Responses to John Brown and the Harper's Ferry Raid, a similar collection of essays, albeit one composed entirely by historians. Regrettably, Terrible Swift Sword does not achieve the exceptional quality of that volume. Some contributors over-generalize historical conditions while others lack analytical insight. Moreover, historians—privileging their own methodology—may question whether some non-historian essayists have built here upon wobbly foundations. But this is exactly the editors' point in promoting this unusually far-flung collaboration: whereas multidisciplinary cooperation feels awkward at first, it may augur genuine intellectual benefit.

Legitimate questions arise about whether another anthology dedicated to examining reactions to Brown is warranted after such a successful precursor as Finkelman's earlier volume, or whether Terrible Swift Sword is adequate to shoulder that burden. On the other hand, Finkelman's goal that it "prove holistic . . . and stimulating," and encourage other wide-ranging scholarly collaborations, is of a different nature. Although few historical subjects inspire such intense or broad interest as John Brown, scholars from diverse and unrelated disciplines may well learn something from this model of cooperation. Those who study Brown will have that chance once again at a second multidisciplinary conference scheduled for 2009 and co-sponsored by a variety of educational or historical institutions. Devotees of Brown's historical legacy apparently are still discovering that even a much-traveled intellectual landscape occasionally reveals some unexpected new vantage points.