Current Research
I am in the finishing stages of a book examining nineteenth-century social reform, politics, and religion--“‘Liberty to the Downtrodden’: Thomas L. Kane, Romantic Reformer”--for publication with Yale University Press. This study uses the life of Kane (1822-1883) as a window onto a tradition of nineteenth-century reform which drew upon Democratic Party ideology, anti-evangelicalism, and romanticism. By contrast, the traditional historical narrative presents antebellum reform as springing from the convergence of Whig politics and evangelical religion. Well-known in his day, Kane crusaded most prominently against slavery and in defense of the liberty of religious minorities. His antipathy to evangelicalism, sense of self as a romantic hero, and adherence to the Democratic Party’s more inclusive vision of religious and ethnic pluralism led him to spend four decades as the most significant outside defender of the reviled Mormons. Most dramatically, his mediation between Mormons and government officials in the Utah War of 1857-1858 brought a peaceful end to that conflict and earned him national fame. Kane’s Civil War career, in which he commanded Pennsylvania’s renowned “Bucktail Regiment,” also demonstrates the influences of the “culture of honor” (typically associated only with the South) on nineteenth-century America. His diverse activities, extensive connections, and rich sources make him an ideal window through which to write this new history of nineteenth-century reform.