Devils and Rebels: The Making of Hawthorne's Damned Politics

by Larry J. Reynolds

Widely condemned even in his own time, Nathaniel Hawthorne's views on abolitionism and slavery are today frequently characterized by scholars as morally reprehensible. Devils and Rebels explores the historical and biographical record to reveal striking evidence of the author's true political values---values grounded in pacifism and resistant to the kind of binary thinking that could lead to violence and war. The book offers fresh readings of not only Hawthorne's four major romances but also some of his less familiar works like "Legends of the Province House," The Whole History of Grandfather's Chair, Journal of an African Cruiser, The Life of Franklin Pierce , and "Septimius Felton." Reynolds argues that Hawthorne---whether in his politics or his art---drew upon racialized imagery from America's past revolution and war on witchcraft to create a politics of quiet imagination, alert to the ways in which New England righteousness could become totalitarian by imposing its narrow view of the world on others. Meticulously researched and cogently argued, this groundbreaking work demonstrates the need to examine perspectives and values from beyond the New England region when studying the literary history of the American Renaissance and illuminates the difficulties faced by public intellectuals during times of political strife---an issue as relevant today as it was some one hundred and fifty years ago. Larry J. Reynolds is Thomas Franklin Mayo Professor of Liberal Arts and Professor of English at Texas A&M University. His previous books include A Historical Guide to Nathaniel Hawthorne, National Imaginaries, American The Cultural Work of American Iconography , and European Revolutions and the American Literary Renaissance as well as an edition of the European writings of Margaret Fuller. "An outstanding combination of literary interpretation and cultural and historical context that will be an important addition to the critical literature on Hawthorne."
---Nina Baym, University of Illinois "It is difficult to imagine a more timely book than Devils and Rebels . Examining the role of the public intellectual and writer during a time of political conflict and war, Reynolds takes up his charges with great precision and historical finesse. What particularly distinguishes this book is its attention to the ways in which one of this country's most important authors struggled to resist the waves of political extremism and patriotic hysteria that swept around him."
---Jeffrey Steele, University of Wisconsin—Madison

313 pages, Hardcover

First published October 30, 2008

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

After completing my survey of Hawthorne recently, I was looking forward to reading this one. I was not disappointed. It contextualizes Hawthorne's work (and political alignments) in a way that confirms much of what I thought about his attitudes and deepens my understanding of how he came to arrive at his opinions. A good survey of the competing white supremacists currents of the 19th century (the abolitionists were just as racist as the southerners, sorry New Englanders) that positions Hawthorne's racism alongside Thoreau, Emerson, and most of his contemporaries. There are no saints here. Now that I understand the political situation a bit better, I'd love to read Hawthorne all over again! Reynolds treatment of the manuscripts left incomplete at his death was especially helpful; he struggled with the same issues across his entire writing career.

[Rowland Pasaribu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Larry Reynolds' Devils and Rebels links Hawthorne's wariness to partisan politics to his knowledge of fanaticism, unscrupulous leaders and people's fears and superstitions, all part of the Salem witch trials, rebels of any kind and abolitionists. This leads to violence, which Hawthorne finds no use for. His is a politics of skepticism and seeing both sides of an issue. Reynolds places him squarely in the center of the issues of his day--slavery,the Civil War, his support for the much and duly maligned President Pierce, etc. Hawthorne might agree with V. S. Naipaul: Hate the oppressor. Fear the oppressed. This is a recipe for political paralysis (with which I don't agree) but underscores the art of Hawthorne's fiction. Well researched and full-bodied, Reynolds' book makes the politics of Hawthorne's time clear, understandable and recognizable from John Brown and the transcendentalists of Concord to the inherent racism of the era. An excellent analysis and narrative.