"What Was John Brown Like?" A Biographer's Deep Dive

John Brown Today

In this episode, Lou takes a "deep dive" on understanding John Brown as a person, from describing his physical and personality traits to an extended discussion about Brown's religious views and his inclination to take up for the underdog. Arguing that Brown certainly is different from popular portrayals, Lou unpacks a biographer's perspective on "the Old Man" that challenges some conventional notions and introduces new insights to a man that is typically misrepresented as unbalanced, angry, and deeply violent. This is a marathon, but one worth running. Interested listeners can find many of the themes discussed here in Lou's compact but substantive study, John Brown: The Cost of Freedom (2007).
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Chapters

1. "What Was John Brown Like?" A Biographer's Deep Dive (00:00:00)

2. His physical appearance (00:01:30)

3. His personality (00:04:00)

4. "Ever the pensioner of hope" (00:05:00)

5. Kossuth and Brown's optimism (00:05:40)

6. Kansas and Brown's optimism (00:07:00)

7. Brown's theology: hoping in providence (00:09:33)

8. A young parent, a harsh disciplinarian (00:10:12)

9. Brown's Protestantism: law and grace (00:11:15)

10. John Brown and the anachronism of "social justice" (00:14:35)

11. "An Old Testament Christian"? (00:15:10)

12. A "pedestrian" Calvinist (00:15:45)

13. A Plan of Union church boy (00:16:50)

14. Guelzo's glop (00:17:35)

15. A postmillenialist (00:20:30)

16. Slavery as a spiritual abomination (00:22:40)

17. Chasing away the clergy (00:23:30)

18. Other personal traits (00:24:50)

19. Fond of music and kids, too (00:26:30)

20. "Blow ye the trumpet, blow" (00:27:05)

21. The jailer's kid loved him (00:28:00)

22. Toss and Jack (00:29:00)

23. The anti-bully (00:29:10)

24. Not the only failed businessman (00:32:40)

25. An expert and a humanitarian (00:33:40)

26. Douglass' last word (00:35:37)