Remaking the Republic of Letters: James McCune Smith and the Classical Tradition

2017 ◽  
pp. 220-240
Author(s):  
John Stauffer
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Classical Tradition ◽  
Classical Literature ◽  
Republic Of Letters ◽  
Nineteenth Century America ◽  
New Republic ◽  
New Vision ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Cautionary Tales ◽  
The U.S

James McCune Smith, a leading black abolitionist, physician, and intellectual in nineteenth-century America, believed that classical literature could help Americans abolish slavery. Fluent in Greek and Latin, McCune Smith believed that the ancients offered cautionary tales for Americans. Their writings emphasized the urgency of abolishing slavery in America and establishing a “pure Republic” rather than another slave republic. With inspiration from the classical tradition, the U.S. could create a new “republic of letters” defined by a new vision of freedom and democracy. McCune Smith articulated this vision in the abolitionist press, most notably in Frederick Douglass’s Paper, in which he drew heavily from Anacreon, Terence, Virgil, Demosthenes, and Aristotle. The classical tradition could empower blacks and women as much as senators and statesmen.

scholarly journals Afterlives of the Republic of Letters: Learned Journals and Scholarly Community in the Early Nineteenth Century

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-116
Author(s):  
Floris Solleveld
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Republic Of Letters ◽  
Scholarly Community ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Changing Role

Abstract What happened to the Republic of Letters? Its history seems to stop at the end of the eighteenth century. And yet, in the nineteenth century, there still existed a community gathered in scholarly societies, maintaining a transnational correspondence network and filling learned journals. The term indeed becomes less frequent, but does not go entirely out of use. This article traces the afterlives of the Republic of Letters in the early nineteenth century. Specifically, it investigates texts that attempt to (re)define the Republic of Letters or a cognate, the wider diffusion of the term, and the changing role of learned journals in that period. While most attempts to reinvent the Republic of Letters failed miserably, they indicate a diagnosis of the state of learning and the position of scholars in a period of transition, and in doing so they contradict an ‘unpolitical’ conception of the Republic of Letters.

Book Reviews

Transfers ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 145-164
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Speed Limits ◽  
Nineteenth Century America ◽  
Time Space ◽  
Electrical Industry ◽  
The U.S ◽  
The Way

Jeffrey T. Schnapp, Speed Limits Charissa Terranova Mark Simpson, Trafficking Subjects: The Politics of Mobility in Nineteenth-century America Cotten SeilerTim Cresswell and Peter Merriman, Geographies of Mobilities: Practices, Spaces and Subjects Gopa SamantaAharon Kellerman, Personal Mobilities Marcel EndresMatthew Beaumont and Michael Freeman, eds., The Railway and Modernity: Time, Space, and the Machine Ensemble Dorit MüllerWilliam D. Middleton and William D. Middleton III, Frank Julian Sprague: Electrical Inventor and Engineer and Frederick Dalzell, Engineering Invention: Frank J. Sprague and the U.S. Electrical Industry Bob PostTom Vanderbilt, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What it Says About Us) Clay McShaneLee Friedlander, America By Car Charissa TerranovaDaniel Sperling and Deborah Gordon, Two Billion Cars: Driving towards Sustainability Rudi Volti

On Tour before Domestic Audiences

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beth Abelson Macleod
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
The United States ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Separate Spheres ◽  
Cultural Activities ◽  
Nineteenth Century America ◽  
Evolution Of Music ◽  
The U.S

This chapter focuses on Fannie Bloomfield-Zeisler's piano recitals in the United States. It begins with a discussion of the development of an almost sacred canon of composers and the elevation of classical music to a virtual religious status as articulated by critic and transcendentalist John Sullivan Dwight and others. It then considers the bifurcation of various U.S. cultural activities into separate spheres—popular and elite—as described by historian Lawrence Levine, and how recent scholars have modified Levine's position with regard to the evolution of music in nineteenth-century America. The chapter also chronicles the practical aspects of touring in the nation, such as train travel, itineraries, packing lists, and hotels. Finally, it describes Bloomfield-Zeisler's recitals and how they compared with those of her contemporaries, both male and female; the U.S. audiences during that time—their makeup, behavior, etiquette, and their reactions to Bloomfield-Zeisler's performances; and how Bloomfield-Zeisler played.

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