Brenda Wineapple

Brenda Wineapple

Brenda Wineapple is the author of several books, including White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and a New York Times Notable Book. Her new book, Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis, and Compromise, 1848-1877 (Harper), will be published in August.

American Frustrations

Just Another July 4th

In the midst of tumult over Snowden and the NSA, DOMA, and congressional dithering, let’s all take a deep breath and remember the 19th century when things were every bit as complicated and exasperating. Brenda Wineapple, author of the forthcoming Ecstatic Nation, celebrates America’s never-ending debate—and progress.

Brenda Wineapple