Author: Tony Horwitz
Title: Midnight Rising
Narrator: Dan Oreskes
Publication Info: Macmillan Audio (2011)
Previously read by same author:
- Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War
- Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before
- A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World
- Baghdad without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia
Summary/Review:
Tony Horwitz, one of my favorite authors, presents a compelling history of John Brown and his followers and the keystone event of their raid on Harpers Ferry. Brown’s life and family are discussed from childhood, to his involvement in Utopian abolition movements, and their targeted assassinations of pro-slavery advocates in “Bleeding Kansas.” It’s eerie that the rhetoric and tactics of Brown and his followers while targeting the noble cause of abolition still resemble those of today’s Tea Party/2nd Amendment activists.The raid on Harpers Ferry took considerable planning and secrecy, although curiously it is uncertain what result Brown expected. Did he really expect it to spark a nation-wide uprising, or did he intend a blood sacrifice? Similarly, his changes in tactics during the raid itself contradict the planning. What’s interesting is that while the raid was widely condemned, even by ardent abolitionists, Brown’s real influence came in his words and letters while in jail and on trial. Even people who despised Brown and all he stood for came to admire his bravery and determination. Horwitz’s book is an interesting account on this key event in American history and the ripples it would have throughout the country.
Recommended books: Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks
Rating: ***1/2
