Free Thinking: 1819-The American Model
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 7 May 2019
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Elaine Showalter, Michael Schmidt, Peter Riley and Katie McGettigan with Laurence Scott on the 19th century writers who shaped the idea of America.
1819 was the year that Herman Melville, Walt Whitman and Julia Ward Howe were born. Whitman's Leaves of Grass, , Melville's novels Moby Dick and The Confidence Man and Julia Ward Howe's passionate opposition to slavery and her advocacy of women's suffrage gave birth to the idea of America. But these authors also have a connection with England - a reading group in Bolton dedicated to Whitman, Melville's visit to Liverpool and Julia Ward Howe's encounters with Browning, the Wordsworths and Oscar Wilde.
Katie McGettigan is the author of Herman Melville: Modernity and the Material Text Peter Riley's most recent book is Whitman, Melville, Crane and the Labours of American Poetry Elaine Showalter is the author of the biography The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe Michael Schmidt is one of the founders of Carcanet Press
You can find more information about research and events @Born1819 Listen back to or download the Free Thinking/BBC Arts& Ideas discussion about Ruskin, Bazalgette and Arthur Hugh Clough https://bbc.in/2TLoOfA
Producer: Zahid Warley
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right? |
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| 0:36.9 | Hello, I'm Lauren Scott. |
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| 1:05.3 | week, a different guest chooses the classical music they're passionate about. People like Alan |
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| 1:27.2 | Hello, anniversaries are funny things. Firework displays in one country are damp squibs in another. |
| 1:33.3 | Here we are celebrating the 200th anniversary of Queen Victoria, while across the Atlantic the 200th anniversary of the War of Independence, a similarly important date, is long gone. |
| 1:43.3 | So what's the point of even trying to synchronise watches with our American cousins? |
| 1:48.3 | Well, let's not be too hasty. Bear with me, because inspiration is about to strike. |
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