Radical Passion: Ottilie Assing's Reports from America and Letters to Frederick Douglass

by Christoph Lohmann, Werner Sollors (Editor)

Overview

Radical Passion examines eighty essays and reports on the United States (1852-1865) by the German-American journalist Ottilie Assing (1819-1884) along with twenty-seven extant letters from Assing to Frederick Douglass during the years 1870-1879. A keen and critical observer of the American scene before and during the Civil War, Assing was passionately committed to her personal freedom and to political and social equality for African Americans. She believed in radical social movements, backed the German Revolution of 1848, and became an enthusiastic supporter of radical abolitionism, women's emancipation, and civil rights for black Americans. For almost three decades, she and Frederick Douglass were close intellectual collaborators and lovers. The reports and essays, originally written in German, are presented in their first English translation; an introduction provides biographical background and historical context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780820445267
Publisher:	Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
Publication date:	01/11/2000
Series:	New Directions in German-American Studies , #1
Pages:	380
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.06(h) x (d)

About the Author

The Editor and Translator: Christoph Lohmann, Professor Emeritus of English and American Studies at Indiana University, holds academic degrees from Swarthmore College, Columbia University, and the University of Pennsylvania. Besides having published numerous articles in scholarly journals, he co-edited several volumes of W. D. Howells's letters and literary criticism. A native of Germany, he recently turned to German-English literary translations. He and his wife, Pamela Lohmann, are co-translators of Ruth Rehmann's The Man in the Pulpit, published in 1997.

What People are Saying About This

David W. Blight

Christoph Lohmann's collection of the writings and letters of Ottilie Assing illuminates a unique storehouse of radical antislavery, anticlerical, and feminist thought from the mid-nineteenth-century..[It] shows Assing to be, one of the keenest observers of American politics, reform, and culture in the age of the Civil War.
—( David W. Blight, Amherst College)

Maria Diedrich

Lohmann's meticulous scholarship and skillful translations snatch from oblivion Ottilie Assing's incisive observations and commentaries on American society, politics, and culture of the 1850s and 1860s.. A remarkable, important book.
—( Maria Diedrich, University of Münster)

John Stauffer

This is one of the most important collections of nineteenth-century articles and letters to appear in twenty years. Lohmann is a master translator and editor as well as an elegant writer. Radical Passion is not only a joy to read; it is indispensable for anyone interested in antebellum reform and the dilemmas of race and nation.
—( John Stauffer, Harvard University)

Wolfgang Hochbruck

Assing's.relentless pursuit of liberty for all races and creeds form[s] a lasting impression of one woman's political spirit.. Lohmann's edition of Assing's reports on America and of her surviving letters to Frederick Douglass closes one of the gaping holes in our knowledge.
—( Wolfgang Hochbruck, University of Stuttgart)

Henry Louis Gates

Ottilie Assing and Frederick Douglass enjoyed one of the most productive and complex relationships in nineteenth-century America, a relationship that crossed boundaries of race, class, gender, and nationality.. Radical Passion is indispensable reading for scholars and students of nineteenth-century intellectual history, American and African-American studies, and anyone eager to understand the intellectual odyssey of Frederick Douglass.
—( Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University)

Editorial Reviews

«Ottilie Assing and Frederick Douglass enjoyed one of the most productive and complex relationships in nineteenth-century America, a relationship that crossed boundaries of race, class, gender, and nationality...'Radical Passion' is indispensable reading for scholars and students of nineteenth-century intellectual history, American and African-American studies, and anyone eager to understand the intellectual odyssey of Frederick Douglass.» (Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University)
«Christoph Lohmann's collection of the writings and letters of Ottilie Assing illuminates a unique storehouse of radical antislavery, anticlerical, and feminist thought from the mid-nineteenth-century...[It] shows Assing to be, one of the keenest observers of American politics, reform, and culture in the age of the Civil War.» (David W. Blight, Amherst College)
«Lohmann's meticulous scholarship and skillful translations snatch from oblivion Ottilie Assing's incisive observations and commentaries on American society, politics, and culture of the 1850s and 1860s... A remarkable, important book.» (Maria Diedrich, University of Münster)
«Assing's...relentless pursuit of liberty for all races and creeds form[s] a lasting impression of one woman's political spirit... Lohmann's edition of Assing's reports on America and of her surviving letters to Frederick Douglass closes one of the gaping holes in our knowledge.» (Wolfgang Hochbruck, University of Stuttgart)
«This is one of the most important collections of nineteenth-century articles and letters to appear in twenty years. Lohmann is a master translator and editor as well as an elegant writer. 'Radical Passion' is not only a joy to read; it is indispensable for anyone interested in antebellum reform and the dilemmas of race and nation.» (John Stauffer, Harvard University)

From the Publisher

German-American journalist Ottilie Assing was a supporter of radical abolitionism, women's emancipation, and other radical social movements of the 19th century. She and Frederick Douglass were close intellectual collaborators and lovers, and this book provides a first-hand look into her life, love, and politics, through a collection of 80 reports and essays she wrote about life in the United States between 1852 and 1865, as well as 27 of her letters to Douglass from 1870-1879. Lohmann (English and American studies, Indiana U.) supplies an introduction to Assing and her work, as well as notes to each of her essays. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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