Words, Works, & Ways of Knowing: The Breakdown of Moral Philosophy in New England before the Civil War

Crime writer Sara Paretsky is known the world over for her acclaimed series of mysteries starring Chicago private investigator V. I. Warshawski, now in its seventeenth installment. Paretsky's work has long been inflected with history—for her characters the past looms large in the present—and in her decades-long career, she has been recognized for transforming the role of women in contemporary crime fiction.

What's less well-known is that before Paretsky began her writing career, she earned...