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Theodore Parker (1810-1860) was a powerful preacher who rejected the authority of the Bible and of Jesus, a brilliant scholar who became a popular agitator for the abolition of slavery and for women's rights, and a political theorist who defined democracy as "government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people--words that inspired Abraham Lincoln. Parker had more influence than anyone except Ralph Waldo Emerson in shaping Transcendentalism in America. In American Heretic, Dean Grodzins offers a compelling account of the remarkable first phase of Parker's career, when this complex man--charismatic yet awkward, brave yet insecure--rose from poverty and obscurity to fame and notoriety as a Transcendentalist prophet. Grodzins reveals hitherto hidden facets of Parker's life, including his love for a woman who was not his wife, and presents fresh perspectives on Transcendentalism. Grodzins explores Transcendentalism's religious roots, shows the profound religious and political issues at stake in the "Transcendentalist controversy," and offers new insights into Parker's Transcendentalist colleagues, including Emerson, Margaret Fuller, and Bronson Alcott. He traces, too, the intellectual origins of Parker's epochal definition of democracy as government of, by, and for the people. The manuscript of this book was awarded the Allan Nevins Prize by the Society of American Historians.

Excerpt from The American Scholar Into this volume have been collected a number of Theodore Parker's more scholarly and critical essays, originally published in the various reviews with which he was connected in one or another capacity. To these have been added three or four studies of great preachers. The title of the initial essay, at first used as a college address, has been thought an appropriate one for the whole volume. The essays on Follen, Beecher, and Macaulay have not before been reprinted from the reviews in which they first appeared. That on Dr. F ollen was printed in The Dial, and was the first of Parker's remarkable series of character studies. As the work of a young man it will be found worthy to lead the way to the studies of Adams and Webster. The essay on Macaulay appeared in the Massachusetts Quarterly Review, and by what oversight Miss Gobbe failed to include it in her edition, it is impossible now to say. Parker's only contribution to The Atlantic Monthly, in its first volume, was the essay on Henry Ward Beecher. It was 'his last work of this kind, and probably concluded his many contributions to magazine literature. It shows how highly he appreciated the great Brooklyn preacher. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.