A Disparate Legacy: Oswald Garrison Villard and the John Brown Biography

John Brown Today

To begin the fourth cycle of John Brown Today, Lou reflects upon the life and contribution of Brown biographer, Oswald Garrison Villard, whose life of John Brown was first published in 1910. As Lou argues, Villard did a great favor to historical study and John Brown students by commissioning extensive research for his work--research that he could not even utilize to the fullest extent himself. On the other hand, Villard depreciated John Brown as a restless and principled murderer, used his economic clout to the disadvantage of W.E.B. DuBois, another biographer of Brown, and fueled more hostile biographies that followed. As Lou discusses in this episode, Villard did so for reasons both ideological and familial.
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