American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)

The Civil War ends and the reaction to emancipation starts. In the second part of my coverage of W. E. B. Du Bois' BLACK RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA, I look at chapters 5-6 and the beginning of the conservative reaction to the second American Revolution.

Once again, we begin a look at what turns out to be my favorite of the juveniles by Robert A. Heinlein. BETWEEN PLANETS is the best yet. Can they keep getting better? The lesson in this book is courage and honor in the face of fate.

In this episode I look at the first four chapters of the amazing book BLACK RECONSTRUCTION IN AMERICA by W. E. B. Du Bois. It is a brilliant celebration of the potential of interracial democracy, written at a time when those potentials were forgotten by historians.

A bit of an aside in this series, "Cliff and the Calories" by Heinlein is a short story about a young woman struggling with a perhaps unnecessary diet. It slightly aligns with some of what he was doing with his juveniles, but I think we need to wait until we read Podkayne to know for sure.

The finale of my review of OLDTOWN FOLKS by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and the conclusion to this series on Stowe's novels. Next up, we will return to W. E. B. Du Bois with a deep dive into Reconstruction-era America.

Part 4 of my review of OLDTOWN FOLKS by Harriet Beecher Stowe. This is an amazing novel that deserves more attention.

A story of capitalism run amok and maybe doing some good, THE MAN WHO SOLD THE MOON, by Robert A. Heinlein is a great novella exploring how  money can do almost anything.

The middle sections of Harriet Beecher Stowe's OLDTOWN FOLKS (1869) explored education with intense focus and through multiple conversations. While repetitive, this section of the novel allowed Stowe to engage with the debates of her own time about education, making a case as persuasive as the one she made in UNCLE TOM'S CABIN about slavery.

In this episode, I finish up my review of the excellent novel FARMER IN THE SKY by Robert A. Heinlein. This novel has some excellent reflections on population, empires, war, ecology, and the frontier. Are the juveniles (and the Future History series at large) metaphors for the Atlantic world? Sometimes I think so.

Heinlein's fourth juvenile novel, FARMER IN THE SKY (1950) is one of the best books he wrote to that point and the most "mature" of his "boy's novels". We seen Heinlein's approach and concerns grow up with his characters. The first part of this book is an excellent window into the ecological, scientific, and political vision Heinlein develops.