Andrew Delbanco

Andrew Delbanco's new book positions the debate over fugitive slaves as a central factor in the nation's slide toward disunion.

The horrors of the fugitive slave laws, the costs of union, and the value of comity.

In every generation, writers and readers find new ways to plumb the depths of Herman Melville and his work.

Coming to love Puritan poetry is an odd aesthetic journey. It's the sort of thing you expect people partial to bowties and gin gimlets to get involved with.

When we think of early New England, we picture stern-faced Puritans. But in the same decade that they arrived, Morton founded a very different kind of colony.

How did the struggle for emancipation become a mass politics?

The novelist drew on far-flung voyages to create his masterpiece. But he could finish it only at his beloved Berkshire farm.