Mightier than the Sword

Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Battle for America

By: David S. Reynolds

Narrated by: Daniel May

In this wide-ranging, brilliantly researched work, David S. Reynolds traces the factors that made Uncle Tom’s Cabin the most influential novel ever written by an American. Upon its 1852 publication, the novel’s vivid depiction of slavery polarized its American readership, ultimately widening the rift that led to the Civil War. Reynolds also charts the novel’s afterlife - including its adaptation into plays, films, and consumer goods - revealing its lasting impact on American entertainment, advertising, and race relations.

©2011 David S. Reynolds (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Fascinating... [A] lively and perceptive cultural history." (Annette Gordon-Reed, The New Yorker)

Fascinating

This is such important history and there was so much I didn’t have a clue about
Read this!

A great threading of the needle from the 1850s to now

This book hits all the right points. It describes the times and situation that led up to the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, more than conveys the earthquake that it caused and traces the tremors that are still felt today. My only complaint as a history professor is the author’s use of the words, “conservative” and “progressive”, as if the former were racists, and the latter were egalitarian. The truth be told, it was the opposite. Abraham Lincoln described himself and the anti-slavery movement as conservative when arguing with proslavery forces as to who was the inheritors of the founding fathers’ politically conservative vision for the country. In addition, by my estimation a majority of progressives during the progressive age were blatantly racist, the best example being president Woodrow Wilson. The author even discusses Wilson’s racism, but never describes him as the progressive that he was. There were exceptions of course, but by and large progressives were no admirers of anyone who fell outside of German or Anglo-Saxon heritage. This reality would only change significantly in the 1940s, but arguably racial bigotry still persists in the movement that still calls itself progressive.