New Books Network

chevron_right

Imagining Independence; or, Why Does Rip Van Winkle Sleep Through the Revolution?

Mar 20, 2026

Guest

Brenda Wineapple, literary biographer of Hawthorne; Wendy S. Walters, Columbia writing professor and poet; Michael Gorra, nineteenth-century literature scholar. They explore Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle, William Austin’s Peter Rugg, and Hawthorne’s Major Molineux. Short stories are read as imaginative responses to the Revolution. The panel probes myth, haunting pasts, civic awakening, and rites of belonging.

58:47

forum

Ask episode

web_stories

AI Snips

view_agenda

Chapters

menu_book

Books

auto_awesome

Transcript

info_circle

Episode notes

insights

INSIGHT

Revolution Alters Politics Not People

Rip Van Winkle shows the Revolution changed polity but not human nature.
Michael Gorra notes Rip returns to the same village habits and family roles despite political transformation.

insights

INSIGHT

The Past Puts Americans Asleep

Irving links Rip's temporal leap to encountering the colonial past in the Catskills.
Gorra argues Rip is made drunk on origin myths (Henry Hudson, the Dutch) and so misses his own era's events.

insights

INSIGHT

Mountains Stage A Muted Ancestral Presence

The Catskills scene mixes merriment with uncanny gravity to embody a mute past.
Panelists describe the men's solemn play and thunderous ninepins as ghostly, explanatory yet silent.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Why Rip Van Winkle Still Resonates

03:22 • 31sec

chevron_right

Rip's Sleep: Past vs. Present

03:54 • 3min

chevron_right

Fact, Fiction, and Henry Hudson

07:09 • 2min

chevron_right

Comfort, Indolence, and American Dilemma

09:24 • 1min

chevron_right

The Catskills' Uncanny Gathering

10:43 • 5min

chevron_right

Waking into a New Mythos

15:22 • 9min

chevron_right

Peter Rugg: A Haunted Time-Traveler

23:55 • 2min

chevron_right

Eyewitness Framing and the Ghost Story

26:19 • 4min

chevron_right

Rugg and Revolutionary Boston

29:49 • 9min

chevron_right

Hawthorne's Initiation: Major Molineux

38:58 • 5min

chevron_right

Tar and Feathers as Rite of Passage

Peter Rugg, The Missing Man

William Austin

Peter Rugg, The Missing Man is an early American short story attributed to William Austin that follows a man doomed to drift through storms and time, desperately trying to reach his home in Boston. The narrative, often framed as eyewitness accounts, uses supernatural elements to explore displacement, historical change, and the unsettling persistence of the past. Panelists discuss Rugg as a figure of exile and commensuration with Revolutionary-era transformations in New England communities. The tale’s haunting tone and portrayal of auctioning off heritage link it to broader questions about who belongs in the new republic.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Tales & Sketches

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne: Tales and Sketches is a Library of America volume that assembles the author’s shorter fiction, including many of his most famous tales and sketches. The edition provides reliable texts, editorial annotations, and contextual material highlighting Hawthorne’s engagement with New England history, moral complexity, and early American identity. Hawthorne’s stories often probe inherited guilt and the psychological consequences of the nation’s founding moments, themes discussed in the episode. The Library of America edition keeps these works accessible to readers and scholars, and the hosts reference it as a source for their conversation about “My Kinsman, Major Molineux. ”

Nathaniel Hawthorne: Complete Tales and Sketches

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne: Complete Tales and Sketches is a Library of America volume compiling the author’s shorter fiction, offering authoritative texts and scholarly annotations. The collection presents Hawthorne’s range of tales—many engaging with themes of history, guilt, and the formation of American identity—making them available in reliable editions. Library of America’s presentation underscores Hawthorne’s central role in the development of early American literature. The episode references this volume as part of the materials informing the discussion of Hawthorne’s story included in the program.

My Kinsman Major Molineux

Nathaniel Hawthorne

My Kinsman, Major Molineux is a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne in which a country youth, Robin, arrives in town seeking his relative but witnesses the kinsman’s public humiliation during revolutionary fervor. The story stages independence as a violent, ritualized initiation that forces the protagonist to reckon with a new civic identity and moral complicity. Hawthorne’s work frequently interrogates inherited guilt and the darker implications of national founding moments, making this tale emblematic of those concerns. The panel analyzes how the story frames American independence through carnival, mob ritual, and the impossibility of returning to a pre-revolutionary home.

Hawthorne, A Life

Brenda Wineapple

Hawthorne, A Life is Brenda Wineapple’s biography tracing Nathaniel Hawthorne’s personal and literary development against the backdrop of early American history and moral thought. The book examines Hawthorne’s familial connections, his engagement with New England’s past, and how those influences shaped his fiction’s recurring themes of guilt and historical inheritance. Wineapple situates Hawthorne within the cultural currents of his time, using archival sources to illuminate his motivations and relationships. The volume is referenced in the episode to note Wineapple’s expertise on Hawthorne and his stories.

#5977

• Mentioned in 8 episodes

The American Story

David Rubenstein

The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians offers a sweeping journey through American history via lively dialogues with esteemed historians. The book features discussions with notable figures like David McCullough, Jon Meacham, and Doris Kearns Goodwin, providing fresh insights into historical figures and events. It is richly illustrated with archival images from the Library of Congress and includes a foreword by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden.

Walt Whitman Speaks

His Final Thoughts on Life, Writing, Spirituality, and the Promise of America

Walt Whitman; edited by Brenda Wineapple

Walt Whitman Speaks is an edited volume presenting Walt Whitman's final thoughts and reflections on poetry, spirituality, and America, curated by Brenda Wineapple. The collection draws on Whitman's late writings, letters, and unpublished material to illuminate his mature perspective on art and nationhood. Wineapple's editorial framing situates Whitman's ideas within his life and the broader American literary tradition, making the material accessible for contemporary readers. The book emphasizes Whitman's continued relevance as a voice for democratic possibility and poetic innovation. It serves both students of Whitman and general readers interested in American literary history.

#23043

• Mentioned in 2 episodes

Rip Van Winkle

Washington Irving

Rip Van Winkle is a short story set in the years before and after the American Revolution. The story recounts the tale of a Dutch-American villager named Rip Van Winkle, who falls asleep in the Catskill Mountains and wakes up 20 years later to a very different world. Upon returning to his village, Rip discovers that his wife has passed away and that the American Revolution has taken place, transforming the political and social landscape. He struggles to adjust to this new reality, becoming a quaint figure of the past. The story explores themes of change, identity, and the impact of historical events on individual lives.

Thursday, March 12—Inaugurating a series of programs to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, authors and scholars Michael Gorra, Wendy S. Walters, and Brenda Wineapple discuss three classic short stories, each written within fifty years of the American Revolution, that imaginatively explore the meaning of that founding moment: Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle,” William Austin’s “Peter Rugg, The Missing Man,” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “My Kinsman, Major Molineux.”

Drawing on the recently published two-volume anthology The American Short Story: The Nineteenth Century and Nathaniel Hawthorne: Tales and Sketches join us for an evening that will illuminate the surprising connections between the birth of our country and the dawning of our literature in ways that continue to resonate.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Home Top podcasts Popular guests Top books