The Observer, November 3, 2006
Volume XXXIX, Issue 9
UConn professor gives abolition talk at Case
On Friday, Robert Gross, author of Minutemen and Their World and professor of early American history at the University of Connecticut, spoke to an audience of professors and students in Mather House about the nature of the abolitionist movement in antebellum Concord, Mass.
History professor Daniel Cohen, who introduced Gross, noted that Gross has influenced the careers of many Case professors both directly and indirectly. "This is kind of like a homecoming for me," said Gross.
Gross's lecture was based on research and conclusions from a book on which he is currently working, Transcendentalists and Their World.
Although a small town, Concord produced many notable transcendentalist American philosophers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry Thoreau. Gross's book will focus on the Concord society in which these philosophers lived and worked.
Closely studying specific cities or towns during a particular time period is not an uncommon research method for historians. The findings from these studies are sometimes used to make broader generalizations about the time period.
In his lecture, Gross focused on the competing abolitionist rhetoric in Concord's society; moderate rationalists and fanatical emotionalists.
According to Gross, these two styles of rhetoric can be explained by the ideology of Unitarians and the Evangelical Christians. Evangelicals appealed to the passions of people, while Unitarians focused on reason and debate.
Before the beginning of his lecture, Gross gave some professional advice to colleagues. "Produce articles as you go. Let the world know you're alive and breathing. But do what you want to do."
