An Essay in the History of the Radical Sensibility in America by Ls Halprin

An Essay in the History of the Radical Sensibility in America by Ls Halprin

How do you use the word "radical?" Committed to the progressive? The cooperative? The communal? The equalitarian? In so far as social, political, and economic power is sought and wielded in malice, just so far is benevolence radical. The history of social, political, and economic power has been mostly the history of malice. The history of benevolence has been mostly the history of radicalism. The sensibility that loves benevolence has been a radical sensibility. InAn Essay in the History of the Radical Sensibility in America, L.S. Halprin arguesthat before the middle of the nineteenth century the work of all American radicals was organized to defend some form of sentimental faith in millennial progress; that the work of the great writers of the middle of the nineteenth century was the first to be fundamentally free of the constraints of sentimentality; that despite that generation's accomplishments, the old sentimentalities have persisted, perpetuating the cycle in which illusions designed to make radicalism's chances seem better than they are become the disillusions which make them seem worse. Along the way, Halprin unfolds something of the contribution of Edgar Alan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman to the specific content of the radical sensibility in America. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, the radical's work has been primarily to accomplish political power. That work and the frustrations of it often leave little energy for the pursuit of a thoroughgoing self-awareness. Halprin's analysis is particularly useful now to remind readers of both the sentimentalities and the wisdoms from which we come.

In the 1930s, Lee Halprinbegan sharing his parents' thrilling embrace of America's and Europe's great radical writing. Then in the 1940s he attended Uppsala College, followed by Columbia University. Halprin has taught at Harvard University and the New England Conservatory of Music. He resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781510766242
ISBN 10	1510766243
Title	An Essay in the History of the Radical Sensibility in America
Author	Ls Halprin
Condition	Unavailable
Publisher	Skyhorse Publishing
Year published	2021-04-06
Number of pages	288
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable