Ruffin

This is a fascinating combination of intellectual and social history focusing on the life and thought of Edmund Ruffin, a 19th-century reformer whose activities in the movement for secession made him a symbol of the antebellum South. Although much has been written about Ruffin, this is the first examination of the connections between his family life, his thought, and his career in reform. Allmendinger shows, through careful analysis of Ruffin's personal papers, how Ruffin's family history informed his thinking and writing. His early experiences of isolation contributed to his valuable…