Man’s Better Angels: Romantic Reformers and the Coming of the Civil War

by Philip F Gura

Banks failed, credit contracted, inequality grew, and people everywhere were out of work while political paralysis and slavery threatened to rend the nation in two. As financial crises always have, the Panic of 1837 drew forth a plethora of reformers who promised to restore America to greatness. Animated by an ethic of individualism and self-reliance, they became prophets of a new moral if only their fellow countrymen would call on each individual’s God-given better instincts, the most intractable problems could be resolved.

Inspired by this reformist fervor, Americans took to strict dieting, water cures, phrenology readings, mesmerism, utopian communities, free love, mutual banking, and a host of other elaborate self-improvement schemes. Vocal activists were certain that solutions to the country’s ills started with the reformation of individuals, and through them communities, and through communities the nation. This set of assumptions ignored the hard political and economic realities at the core of the country’s malaise, however, and did nothing to prevent another financial panic twenty years later, followed by secession and civil war.

Focusing on seven individuals―George Ripley, Horace Greeley, William B. Greene, Orson Squire Fowler, Mary Gove Nichols, Henry David Thoreau, and John Brown―Philip Gura explores their efforts, from the comical to the homicidal, to beat a new path to prosperity. A narrative of people and ideas, Man’s Better Angels captures an intellectual moment in American history that has been overshadowed by the Civil War and the pragmatism that arose in its wake.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

328 pages, Hardcover

Published April 10, 2017

Reviews

[John Dayton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book after hearing an interview with the author on KUER's Radio West based at the University of Utah. The book gives vignettes into seven pre-American Civil War reformers who advocated various prescriptions intended to heal the U.S. and its citizens of their social, financial, and moral ills. The author is understandably skeptical of the means used (i.e., the "water cure", Utopian communities, and in the case of John Brown, murder and kidnapping). His assertion is that the reformers' focus on individual cures and actions was ineffective to deal with the structural problems of the day, namely the financial Panics of 1837 and 1857 and slavery.

The vignettes of the seven reformers whetted my appetite to read more about them, especially Mary Gove Nichols and Henry David Thoreau. As far as their ideas, I agreed with the author that they were not up to the task in terms of combating the moral and political evil that was slavery. They seemed to reflect a disengagement with the social causes of this evil and a retreat into a personal utopia with a vain hope that others would 'see the light' and follow them.

However, the author's chosen reformers were cut from nearly the same cloth. In fact, all of them appeared to have met each other or at least ran in the same circles. While the given manifestations they used were wide ranging, the underlying ideas that moved the reformers were similar and made the book a bit repetitive. I noted that the reformers he chose were from New England and this probably contributed to their similar worldview. I wonder if reformers, assuming they existed, from other regions of the U.S. would have had different ideas. In any case, I really enjoyed the book and would read more works by this author.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gura's profiles of a handful of ante-bellum (failed) utopians are uniformly interesting, often more than that, though he doesn't quite tie up the whole package as neatly as one might expect or hope. The notion that each, with the possible exception of John Brown - the only one to deal seriously enough with slavery, his ultimate downfall - placed too much faith in man's perfectability (in God's image) and (over) emphasis on individualism (as a peculiarly "American" disease perhaps) is fascinating, bears pondering and remains relevant.

[Debra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not what I had hoped for. Intro and final chapter best. Useful bibliography and source info.

[Mills College Library]

303.484 G978 2017