Facing the other : ethical disruption and the American mind / Linda Bolton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bolton, Linda, 1955-

Series:

Horizons in theory and American culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethics--United States--History--Sources.

Ethics.

Political ethics--United States--History--Sources.

Political ethics.

Criticism, Textual.

Other (Philosophy).

Ethics in literature.

Liberty in literature.

Justice in literature.

Intellectual life.

Politics and government.

History.

United States--Politics and government--1775-1783--Sources.

United States.

United States--Politics and government--1783-1865--Sources.

United States--Intellectual life--1783-1865--Sources.

Genre:

Sources.

Physical Description:

xi, 209 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, [2004]

Summary:

Linda Bolton uses six extraordinarily resonant moments in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American history to highlight the ethical challenge that the treatment of Native and African persons presented to the new republic's ideal of freedom. Most daringly, she examines the efficacy of the Declaration of Independence as a revolutionary text and explores the provocative question "What happens when freedom eclipses justice, when freedom breeds injustice?" Guided by the intellectual influence of philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, Bolton asserts that the traditional subject-centered--or "I"--concept of freedom is dependent on the transcendent presence of the "Other," and thus freedom becomes a privilege subordinate to justice. There can be no authentic freedom as long as others, whether Native or African, are reduced from full human beings to concepts and thus properties of control and power.

Contents:

Towards confronting "the hatred by the other human"

Facing alterity : the ethics of conversion in Crèvecoeur's Letters from an American farmer

In the name of "justice and humanity" : Thomas Paine's ethical envisionings of the American Republic

Standing in the "field of freedom" : Thomas Jefferson and the reverberations of that declaratory promise

Fugitive poseurs : the native eloquence of Frederick Douglass and Sarah Winnemucca

In the presence of the great American criminal : John Brown's triumphant failure at Harpers Ferry.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 199-204) and index.

ISBN:

0807129402

OCLC:

53183434