Making sense of slavery : America's long reckoning, from the founding era to today Cover Image

Making sense of slavery : America's long reckoning, from the founding era to today / Scott Spillman.

Summary:

"In recent years Americans have engaged in fierce debates about how slavery and its legacies ought to be taught, researched, and narrated. But since the earliest days of the Republic, political leaders, abolitionists, judges, scholars, and ordinary citizens have all struggled to explain and understand the peculiar institution. In Making Sense of Slavery, historian Scott Spillman shows that the study of slavery was a vital catalyst for the broader development of American intellectual life and politics. Incontexts ranging from the plantation fields to the university classroom, Americans interpreted slavery and its afterlives through many lenses, shaping the trajectory of disciplines from economics to sociology, from psychology to history"-- Provided by publisher.

Record details

ISBN: 1541602099
ISBN: 9781541602090
Physical Description: 429 pages ; 24 cm.
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: New York : Basic Books, 2025.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Prologue. Knowledge is power -- National identity -- Land and labor -- Laws and nature and nations -- Still fighting it -- Look away -- Dixie Land -- New foundations -- The problem of slavery -- Culture and consciousness -- The big picture -- The ghost. -- Epilogue. The work.