Book Review: Slavery, Philosophy, and Antebellum Literature, 1830-1860 by Maurice S. Lee. Cambridge University Press, 2005

Maurice S. Lee, Slavery, Philosophy, and Antebellum Literature, 1830-1860, Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. viii + 223, £45. Lee reads Frederick Douglass's second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), as cleverly applying Scottish commonsense philosophy, partly in order to demon...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inLiterature & History Vol. 16; no. 2; p. 84
Main Author Noel, Rebecca R
Format Book Review
LanguageEnglish
Published London Sage Publications Ltd 01.10.2007
Subjects
Douglass, Frederick (1818-1895)
Philosophy
Smith, James McCune
Webster, Daniel
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Summary:Maurice S. Lee, Slavery, Philosophy, and Antebellum Literature, 1830-1860, Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. viii + 223, £45. Lee reads Frederick Douglass's second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), as cleverly applying Scottish commonsense philosophy, partly in order to demonstrate an African American's power to think metaphysically; sadly, commonsense could not solve slavery either. Funny asides about academic life abound, as when he suggests of Poe's stated aims in Eureka, 'The hubris here may rival that of some university mission statements' (p. 40).
ISSN:0306-1973
2050-4594