"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 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 Identities: 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.

"Well-written, scrupulously researched, and simultaneously sympathetic and critical toward its subject, Reynolds's book is important not only for its historically responsive account of Hawthorne's widely misunderstood politics but also its invigorating portrait of a perceptive author who struggled to resist the political extremism that swept the Northern states before and after the bombardment of Fort Sumter." ---New England Quarterly "This beautifully written, thoroughly researched study faces criticism of Hawthorne, both in his day and the present, for his stance on slavery and the Civil War. . . . Reynolds shows Hawthorne to have rejected the extremism of the abolitionists, been a pacifist who hoped war could be avoided . . . and hated slavery even more than war---but at the same to have been deeply prejudiced, to have feared amalgamation (or miscegenation), and never to have acknowledged the real horrors of slavery." ---Choice 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. With fresh readings of Hawthorne's four major romances and his less familiar works, Devils and Rebels illuminates the difficulties faced by public intellectuals during times of political strife---an issue as relevant today as it was some 150 years ago. Larry J. Reynolds is Thomas Franklin Mayo Professor of Liberal Arts and Professor of English at Texas A&M University.

Contributions by William S. Burroughs, Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, Aleister Crowley, A.O. Spare, Jack Parsons, Genesis P-Orridge, and many others. This remarkable book brings together some of the most talented, controversial and rebellious people on the planet today.Every contributor, in every article, in every aspect of their lives, has had but one focus: to bring freedom to their world.The essence of independence has been to think and act according to standards from within, not without. Inevitably anyone with an independent mind must become one who resists or opposes authority or established convention: a rebel. If enough people come to agree with and follow the Rebel, we now have a Devil.

The image of the outlaw biker is widely recognize in North American society. The reality is only known to insiders. To study the phenomenon of outlaw biker clubs, anthropologist Daniel Wolf bridged the gap between image and reality by becoming an insider. Electronic Format Disclaimer: Preliminary images removed at the request of the rights holder.

The second revised edition of this remarkable book brings together some of the most talented, controversial and rebellious people of our time. The essence of independence has been to think and act according to standards from within, not without. Inevitably anyone with an independent mind must become "one who resists or opposes authority or established conventions": a rebel. If enough people come to agree with, and follow, the Rebel, we now have a Devil. Until, of course, still more people agree. And then, finally, we have -- Greatness.

There is much to admire in John Milton's Paradise Lost. Beyond the epic tale of fallen angels and sinful human beings, there exists a remarkable degree of insight into the emotions stirred by the competing forces that impact our lives. Paradise Lost: A Poetic Journey uses modern language to continue on that path, to reveal the moments of bliss, anxiety, empathy, deceit, and other emotions that permeate Milton's work while helping us to reflect on our own Christian values. Paradise Lost: A Poetic Journey is written for both adult and young adult Christians, as well as for non-Christians who are curious about the biblical story of creation. The great variety of classical poetic structures utilized to tell the story will appeal to those interested in the multinational origins of formal poetry.

By the early twenty-first century, a phenomenon that once was inconceivable had become nearly commonplace in American society: the public spiritual teacher who neither belongs to, nor is authorized by a major religious tradition. From the Oprah Winfrey-endorsed Eckhart Tolle to figures like Gangaji and Adhyashanti, there are now countless spiritual teachers who claim and teach variants of instant or immediate enlightenment. American Gurus tells the story of how this phenomenon emerged. Through an examination of the broader literary and religious context of the subject, Arthur Versluis shows that a characteristic feature of the Western esoteric tradition is the claim that every person can achieve "spontaneous, direct, unmediated spiritual insight." This claim was articulated with special clarity by the New England Transcendentalists Bronson Alcott and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Versluis explores Transcendentalism, Walt Whitman, the Beat movement, Timothy Leary, and the New Age movement to shed light on the emergence of the contemporary American guru. This insightful study is the first to show how Asian religions and Western mysticism converged to produce the phenomenon of "spontaneously enlightened" American gurus.

This gripping study examines slave resistance and protest in antebellum Florida and its local and national impact from 1821 to 1865. Using a variety of sources, Larry Eugene Rivers discusses Florida's unique historical significance as a runaway slave haven dating back to the seventeenth century. In moving detail, Rivers illustrates what life was like for enslaved blacks whose families were pulled asunder as they relocated and how they fought back any way they could to control small parts of their own lives. Identifying slave rebellions such as the Stono, Louisiana, Denmark (Telemaque) Vesey, Gabriel, and the Nat Turner insurrections, Rivers argues persuasively that the size, scope, and intensity of black resistance in the Second Seminole War makes it the largest sustained slave insurrection in American history.

The history of bourgeois modernity is a history of the Enemy. This book is a radical exploration of an Enemy that has recently emerged from within security documents released by the US security state: the Universal Adversary. The Universal Adversary is now central to emergency planning in general and, more specifically, to security preparations for future attacks. But an attack from who, or what? This book – the first to appear on the topic – shows how the concept of the Universal Adversary draws on several key figures in the history of ideas, said to pose a threat to state power and capital accumulation. Within the Universal Adversary there lies the problem not just of the ‘terrorist’ but, more generally, of the ‘subversive’, and what the emergency planning documents refer to as the ‘disgruntled worker’. This reference reveals the conjoined power of the contemporary mobilisation of security and the defence of capital. But it also reveals much more. Taking the figure of the disgruntled worker as its starting point, the book introduces some of this worker’s close cousins – figures often regarded not simply as a threat to security and capital but as nothing less than the Enemy of all Mankind: the Zombie, the Devil and the Pirate. In situating these figures of enmity within debates about security and capital, the book engages an extraordinary variety of issues that now comprise a contemporary politics of security. From crowd control to contagion, from the witch-hunt to the apocalypse, from pigs to intellectual property, this book provides a compelling analysis of the ways in which security and capital are organized against nothing less than the ‘Enemies of all Mankind’.

A new source for Shakespeare's plays, only recently uncovered, is investigated here with a full edition and facsimile of the text.