Uncle Tom's Cabin (First Edition) (The Norton Library)

A bestselling novel widely credited for helping fuel the abolitionist movement that precipitated the Civil War, Uncle Tom’s Cabin aimed at the heart of white, Christian America with its sensational depiction of fugitive slaves and their struggle for freedom. Edited by Susan M. Ryan (University of Louisville), the Norton Library edition features the text of the 1852 book version and an introduction that discusses the work’s historical and religious contexts, its influence and political efficacy, the limits of white allyship, and what it means to read this novel—with all its conflicts and controversies—today.