Long Road to Harpers Ferry: The Rise of the First American Left

By Mark A. Lause

Book Overview

This is the first comprehensive history of pre-Civil War American radicalism, mapping the journeys of the land reformers, Jacksonian radicals, and militant abolitionists who paved the way to the failed slave revolt at Harpers Ferry in 1859.
Offering new and fascinating insights into the cast of characters who created a homegrown socialist movement in America--from Thomas Paine's revolution to Robert Owen's utopianism, and from Thomas Skidmore's agrarianism to George Henry Evans's industrial workers' reforms--Long Road to Harpers Ferry captures the spirit of the times. Showing how class solidarity and consciousness became more important to a generation of workers than notions of American citizenship, the book offers a fascinating historical background to help us understand the rise of radicalism in the United States today.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0745337597
• ISBN13: 9780745337593
• Release Date: October 2018
• Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.4" x 8.4"