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Which novelist was welcomed by the President of the United States as ‘the person who started the war?’
Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The president was Abraham Lincoln, and while he probably never said that, it’s easy to believe that he might have. And the war was, of course, the American Civil War, still one of the most deadly conflicts the United States has engaged in.
Could a novel even really do that? Even a best selling novel? Start a war?
Probably not, but the idea captures the power of the a book that had already touched hundreds of thousands of readers lives, captured their passions and their imaginations, and engaged them directly with one of the great causes of the day. The experience of reading turned readers into fans, and energized fans can do many amazing things.
Fans of the 1852 novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, created a global multi-media phenomenon that powered through decades as a best selling novel, dozens of translations, hundreds of not thousands of adaptations, and spurred the creation of an entire literary sub-genre of ‘anti-Tom’ novels and writings.
Using the lens of modern fandom we will explore what made this now obscure novel the towering cultural powerhouse that it was in it’s day.
Workshop participants will delve into what fandom is, what it does and why, and how it can harness powerful forces that reshape the world around us.
Our case study will be the now forgotten, but once a juggernaut, fandom that responded to the novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
This workshop has our standard refund policy.
I hold a PhD in nineteenth century US history, and I have taught introductory and specialized courses in the history of the US from 1800 to 1900, which is how I learned about the fandom that exploded around the media sensation that was Uncle Tom's Cabin. I also have been an active member of a number of fan communities, including those fan communities that explore the power and nature of fandom itself.
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