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

The Crises of Human Identity in the 1960s

By David deHaas

The 1960s were a time of many social and political movements representing the diverse voices and concerns amongst the fragmented American populous. The particular causes of these movements consisted of clashes between standard cultural norms that characterized American society, and communities that resisted this standard. I would posit that a substantial causal factor of these clashes was a widespread crises of human identity.

Archives, Issue VIIContent EditorsApril 6, 2017women, politics, government, identity, crisis, movement, culture, sexism, counter-cultureComment

Back to the Futurism

By Rosalind Fursland

Mina Loy is primarily known as an early modernist poet, although she was also an admired creator in other spheres. One of Loy’s most recognisable and insightful remarks in her essay “Modern Poetry” is that “Poetry is prose bewitched, a music made of visual thoughts, the sound of an idea” (Loy 157)

Volume 4, ArchivesContent EditorsSeptember 5, 2014modern, movement, language, influence, poetry, expression, identityComment

Writing the Female Experience

By Elizabeth Zehl

Works that fall within the genre of bildungsroman chart the "advancement and development of the individual," generally from childhood to, and sometimes through, adulthood (Kunz 2010).

Archives, Volume 1Content EditorsAugust 20, 2014literature, author, women, psychology, novel, fiction, movementComment