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ORESTES A BROWNSON by Arthur M. Schlesinger

ORESTES A BROWNSON

A Pilgrims Progress

by Arthur M. Schlesinger

Pub Date: April 20th, 1939
ISBN: 1179814150
Publisher: Little, Brown

A man forgotten — who 50 years ago was constantly on the battlefields of religion, philosophy, social science, politics, his weapons a trenchant pen and a ready flow of oratory. He was a stormy petrel — his range was astonishing — he was eternally restless due to unabating search for truth. New England — raised with the idea of going into the ministry — sidetracked into teaching — always seeking his place in the spiritual world, and ending up as a Roman Catholic. He founded the Boston Quarterly Review for the sake of disseminating his views. In addition to religion, his interests extended themselves to social questions, philosophy, etc., and was a vital part of the intellectual awakening of The Flowering of New England. In politics he was equally a chameleon, — a radical but against abolition, a democrat, later a conservative. For thirty years his review covered the whole intellectual field. But his influence waned rapidly. The book is very specialized, and has a limited appeal. It is objectively written, but contains many rather abstract disquisitions.