• Are revolutions futile? Are the odds stacked against revolutionaries? Do they cause more harm than good? Should oppressed people revolt? Should they just endure oppression? Are there alternatives NO OTHER SITES OR FILES

This dissertation examines popular fictions that employed the history and

iconography of the American Revolution to promote radical reform movements in the

antebellum United States. The project challenges common critical assumptions that

historical fictions—and particularly those drawing upon Revolutionary history—are

inherently nostalgic and capable of conveying only a limited range of political meanings.

Rather than conservative efforts to preserve Revolutionary history, many works of this type

were extensions of their authors’ progressive reform efforts. These historical fictions sought

to recruit readers to the cause of completing the democratizing work of the Revolution in

order to ensure that the people maintained control over their own institutions.

The project considers works by authors who circulated among groups and parties that

contributed to the democratic tumult of the antebellum period, including Catharine Maria

Sedgwick, George Lippard, Herman Melville, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Beecher

Stowe. As members—either centrally or peripherally—of opposition political parties,

unions, and reform groups, these authors spoke on behalf of, or were received as engaging

with, campaigns for labor reform, socialism, and abolitionism. Situating these texts within

contemporary radical reform movements reveals that they explicitly endorsed policies such

Explanation:

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