OSHER 611 - History and Literature: "The Good Lord Bird"

Looking at events and people in the run-up to the Civil War, we will trace the increasingly fractious divide between slave states and abolitionists. Included will be the Compromise of 1850, the concept of Popular Sovereignty leading to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858, Lincoln's Cooper Union speech and the run-up to secession, as well as analysis of John Brown's attack at Harper's Ferry. In the second hour, we will continue with a discussion of the novel as contemporary literature. Readers and history buffs welcome! Participants should read "The Good Lord Bird" by James McBride before class.