Dr. Samantha Harvey
Boise State University

Can literature change the way we see the world? This course explores the influential—and controversial—careers of two American writers who electrified the reading public in the second half of the 19th century: Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain. Can we still read their problematic texts today to understand the challenging realities of their time and ours? Through the lens of fiction, their work illuminated and personified complex dynamics at work in abolition and other social reform movements. In this course, we will read works by Twain and Stowe and visit their respective house and center in Hartford, Connecticut and the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts to see rare original books and documents related to this extraordinary moment in American history and letters.

Dr. Harvey is the founder and creative director of Perennial College at NMH. A graduate of Harvard College and Cambridge University, she has published books and articles on 19th century British poetry and prose, transatlantic Romanticism, and the environmental humanities. In 2012, she founded a public lecture series, "The Idea of Nature" which brings three internationally known lecturers to Boise State every Spring.