Background
Reynolds, David Spencer was born on August 30, 1948 in Providence. Son of Paul Ripley and Adelaide (Koch) Reynolds.
(A cultural biography of John Brown, the controversial abo...)
A cultural biography of John Brown, the controversial abolitionist who used violent tactics against slavery and single-handedly changed the course of American history. Reynolds brings to life the Puritan warrior who gripped slavery by the throat and triggered the Civil War. Reynolds demonstrates that Brown’s most violent acts—including his killing of proslavery settlers in Kansas and his historic raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia--were inspired by the slave revolts, guerilla warfare, and revolutionary Christianity of the day. He shows how Brown seized public attention, polarizing the nation and fueling the tensions that led to the Civil War. Reynolds recounts how Brown permeated American culture during the Civil War and beyond, and how he planted the seeds of the civil rights movement by making a pioneering demand for complete social and political equality for America’s ethnic minorities.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375726152/?tag=2022091-20
(The award-winning Beneath the American Renaissance is a c...)
The award-winning Beneath the American Renaissance is a classic work on American literature. It immeasurably broadens our knowledge of our most important literary period, as first identified by F.O. Matthiessen's American Renaissance. With its combination of sharp critical insight, engaging observation, and narrative drive, it represents the kind of masterful cultural history for which David Reynolds is known. Here the major works of Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and Dickinson receive striking, original readings set against the rich backdrop of contemporary popular writing. Now back in print, the volume includes a new foreword by historian Sean Wilentz that reveals the book's impact and influence. A magisterial work of criticism and cultural history, Beneath the American Renaissance will fascinate anyone interested in the genesis of America's most significant literary epoch and the iconic figures who defined it.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0199782849/?tag=2022091-20
( In this landmark work, the seven great writers of the ...)
In this landmark work, the seven great writers of the American Renaissance--Emerson, Thoreau, Writman, Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, and Dickinson--are examined together in their cultural contexts. David Reynolds reveals how these authors broadly assimilated the themes and images of popular culture. Their classic works--among them Moby Dick, The Scarlet Letter, Leaves of Grass, Walden, and the tales of Poe--are given strikingly original reading when viewed against the rich, often startling background of long neglected popular writings of the time. Reynolds also explores a whole lost world of sensational literature, including grisly novels, openly sold on the street, that combined intense violence with explicit eroticism. He demonstrates as well how common concerns with issues of religion, slavery, and workers' (as well as women's) rights resonate in the major writings.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674065654/?tag=2022091-20
Reynolds, David Spencer was born on August 30, 1948 in Providence. Son of Paul Ripley and Adelaide (Koch) Reynolds.
Bachelor, Amherst College, Massachusetts, 1970. Doctor of Philosophy, University California, Berkeley, 1979.
Assistant professor Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, 1980-1983. Visiting professor Barnard College, New York City, 1983-1984. Associate professor Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey, 1986-1989.
Professor Department English Baruch College and Graduate School City University of New York, New York City, 1989-1996, distinguished professor department of English, since 1996.
( In this landmark work, the seven great writers of the ...)
(A cultural biography of John Brown, the controversial abo...)
( The first full-length study of early religious fiction...)
(The award-winning Beneath the American Renaissance is a c...)
Fellow: American Antiquarian Society, Society of America Historians.
Married Suzanne Nalbantian, July 23, 1983. 1 child, Aline Elizabeth.