Free Markets or Free People: Amos A. Lawrence and the Limits of the Abolitionist Movement

By Catherine Devlin, Boston University, Boston, MA

Turning points make for appealing narratives. It’s satisfying to be able to point to a moment and say, “There. That’s when it all changed.” Amos Adams Lawrence (1814-1886), Bostonian textile merchant, indulged his inner story-teller when he described such a turning point, a moment of total reinvention, in a letter to his uncle: “We went to bed one night old-fashioned, conservative, Compromise Union Whigs and waked up stark mad abolitionists.”

Issue XContent EditorsMay 4, 2020movement, abolition, racism, slavery, change, ideology, stereotypes, Amos LawrenceComment

Legitimizing Illegitimate Power

Megan Krelle

Technology is used to challenge the hegemonic ideal that the natural is of more value than the artificial. This prevailing valuation is explored through the examination of the societal power structure, which asserts the dominance of one group, and their ideals over any other, and the way that value is constructed and legitimized by the ruling center of the society in Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and G. Willow Wilson’s Alif the Unseen.

Issue VI, ArchivesContent EditorsApril 11, 2016power, novel, technology, sci-fi, ideology, government, internetComment