John Brown

Fanatics? Hero? Terrorist? Martyr? Criminal mystic? John Brown, for sure, has never left anybody indifferent. Even W.E.B. Du Bois, in fact, dedicated him this biography! But what about it?

Well, it's a very strong portrait. It hints towards the lyricism, and it offers, unabashedly, the view of a man painted as nothing less but a visionary, who gave his life in the name of a greater, noble, cause. Written and first published at a time when Brown was, by any account, considered as a murderous madman (1909), such portrayal was clearly a challenge to common prejudices, to say the least! But then again: isn't such a character still highly controversial, despite his good intent?

This is not a proper historical essay by any mean (it's far too show more emotional for that), but, as a brick thrown into a wall and by an intellectual whose legacy was no less impactful, it surely deserves to be discovered. John Brown, after all, still is a contentious figure. show less

This a fantastic narrative history of the rise and creation of Old Man Brown.

Reaching all the way to his childhood in Connecticut and Ohio, through his early business efforts, Du Bois draws a dramatic portrait of our country's most famous martyr.

I had no idea he was a successful, then bankrupt, businessman. His second bankruptcy finally turned him to his ultimate immortality.

A moving cultural biography of abolitionist martyr John Brown, by one of the most important African-American intellectuals of the twentieth century.

Notable author writes biography of the radical abolitionist.