Synopses & Reviews
With a combination of scrupulous original research, new perspective, and a sensitive historical imagination, Patriotic Treason vividly recreates the world in which John Brown and his compatriots lived as well as the biography of John Brown and the history of the events leading up to the Civil War. Evan Carton narrates the dramatic life of the first U.S. citizen committed to absolute racial equality. In defiance of the culture around him, Brown lived, worked, ate, and fought alongside African Americans. Inspired by the Declaration of Independence and the Golden Rule, he collaborated with black leaders such as Frederick Douglass, Martin Delany, and Harriet Tubman to overthrow slavery. Carton captures the complex, tragic, and provocative story of Brown the committed abolitionist, Brown the tender yet demanding and often absent father and husband, and Brown the radical American patriot who attacked the American state in the name of American principles. Cartons fresh archival research, his attention to overlooked family letters, and his reinterpretation of documents and events reveal a missing link in American history. A wrenching family saga, Patriotic Treason positions Brown at the heart of our most profound and enduring national debates on patriotism, treason, religion, and race relations.
Review
“A compelling biography.”—Library Journal Library Journal
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“Absorbing and inspiring.”—Publishers Weekly Publishers Weekly
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“Carton has penned an intriguing portrait of abolitionist Brown. He grounds this biography firmly in historical context by providing a digestible overview of the politically tumultuous mid-nineteenth century, and his admiration for the courage of Brown's convictions in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds shines through the compelling narrative.”—Booklist Booklist
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“Absorbing and inspiring.”—Publishers Weekly --Pu - blishers Weekly
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"This work presents a well-written and thoughtful account that will help readers better understand what drove a unique and significant figure." —Jonathan M. Atkins, The Historian Jonathan M. Atkins
Review
"Standing by the Flag: Nebraska Territory and the Civil War, 1861-1867 deserves a great deal of credit for taking on a subject previously unexamined. In effectively doing so, it significantly enhances our knowledge and understanding the Civil War west of the Mississippi."and#8212;Andrew Wagenhoffer, Civil War Books and Authors
Review
andquot;Well written, Standing Firmly by the Flag is a readable and engaging account of the Civil War in an area hardly ever touched upon by most books on the subject, and will prove rewarding reading for anyone interested in America in the mid-nineteenth century.andquot;andmdash;A. A. Nofi, Strategy Page
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"Standing Firmly by the Flag is required reading for anyone who hopes to understand Nebraska's Civil War experience."and#8212;Kurt Hackemer, Annals of Iowa
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"The author's commitment to detail and analysis of events as they relate to the broader context of Nebraska and national history make it a "must read" for professional historians, and yet the reader-friendly style will also appeal to more general audiences less familiar with such history."and#8212;Donald C. Simmons Jr., South Dakota State Historical Society
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"Potter has written a well-researched work, one that helps carve a wider niche for Nebraska's role in the Civil War while providing context for the development of the Great Plains."and#8212;Tim McNeese, Great Plains Quarterly
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"Standing Firmly by the Flag will likely stand for a long while as the most appealing history of Nebraska's civil war within the Civil War."and#8212;Christopher Phillips, Kansas History
Synopsis
From a pool of barely nine thousand men of military age, Nebraskaand#8212;still a territory at the timeand#8212;sent more than three thousand soldiers to the Civil War. They fought and died for the Union cause, were wounded, taken prisoner, and in some cases deserted. But Nebraskaand#8217;s military contribution is only one part of the more complex and interesting story that James E. Potter tells in
Standing Firmly by the Flag, the first book to fully explore Nebraskaand#8217;s involvement in the Civil War and the warand#8217;s involvement in Nebraskaand#8217;s evolution from territory to thirty-seventh state on March 1, 1867.
Although distant from the major battlefronts and seats of the warring governments, Nebraskans were aware of the warand#8217;s issues and subject to its consequences. National debates about the origins of the rebellion, the policies pursued to quell it, and what kind of nation should emerge once it was over echoed throughout Nebraska. Potter explores the warand#8217;s impact on Nebraskans and shows how, when Nebraska Territory sought admission to the Union at warand#8217;s end, it was caught up in political struggles over Reconstruction, the fate of the freed slaves, and the relationship between the states and the federal government.
About the Author
Evan Carton is the Joan Negley Kelleher Centennial Professor in Rhetoric and Composition at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of The Marble Faun: Hawthorne's Transformations and The Rhetoric of American Romance: Dialectic and Identity in Emerson, Dickinson, Poe, and Hawthorne.