Angry Abolitionists and the Rhetoric of Slavery

This book is an original application of rhetoric and moral-emotions theory to the sociology of social movements. It promotes a new interdisciplinary vision of what social movements are, why they exist, and how they succeed in attaining momentum over time. Deepening the affective dimension of cultural sociology, this work draws upon the social psychology of human emotion and interpersonal communication. Specifically, the book revolves around the topic of anger as a unique moral emotion that can be made to play crucial motivational and generative functions in protest. The chapters develop a new theory of the emotional power of protest rhetoric, including how abolitionist performances of heterodoxic racial and gender status imaginaries contributed to the escalation of the 'sectional conflict' over American slavery.

Autorentext
Benjamin Lamb-Books received his PhD in Sociology from the University of Colorado, Boulder, USA. He is an invited contributor to the second edition of the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, and his previous writings have appeared in Social Movement Studies and Thesis Eleven.

Inhalt

Part I - Moral Emotions in Social Movements.- Chapter 1 Indignant Hearts of Protest.- Chapter 2 Moving Contexts of Abolition.- Chapter 3 The Rhetoric of Slavery.- Part II - Emotional Inequalities of Protest.- Chapter 4 Gender Trouble in Abolitionism: On Ethos Work.- Chapter 5 Systemic Racism and the Rhetoric of Recognition.- Part III - Affect Matters.- Chapter 6 How Charisma and Pathos Move Audiences.- Chapter 7 Looking Back Ahead: When Status Conflicts Explode Conclusion.