Distinguished University Professor Robert S. Levine Awarded NEH Public Scholars Grant for Book on Harriet Beecher Stowe

The grant will support Levine’s book in progress, under contract with W. W. Norton, and intended for a broad public audience.

By Chloe Kim

Distinguished University Professor Robert S. Levine of the Department of English has been awarded a Public Scholars Grant by the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant, which provides funding to individual authors writing nonfiction books in the humanities for the public, will support writing and archival research for Levine’s book-in-progress, under advance contract with W. W. Norton, on 19th-century American author and abolitionist Harriet Beecher Stowe, best known for her 1852 novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”

Stowe was an influential American literary figure whose writing also attracted criticism from pro-slavery contemporaries for its abolitionist position and later from Black critics, such as James Baldwin, for its sentimental depiction of Black characters. Levine’s book will illuminate details about her life and social reform work that are less well known and have not been previously studied. Titled “After Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Harriet Beecher Stowe, African America, and the Quest for Interracial Democracy,” the book will tell the story of Stowe’s significant engagements with African Americans in the decades following the publication of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and her long-term commitments to ideals of interracial democracy, such as funding Black schools and working for Reconstruction in Florida.

Levine is an eminent scholar of American and African American literature who has published extensively on African American literature and culture. He serves as general editor of “The Norton Anthology of American Literature,” a widely assigned and trusted text for teaching American literature. In addition, through his critical editions, Levine has helped to illuminate canonical and lesser-known works by 19th-century American authors such as Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Martin Delany and Frederick Douglass for literature students and enthusiasts.

In recent years, Levine became interested in moving his work toward public scholarship and writing trade books for general audiences because he “could see clear connections” between his work on slavery and the Reconstruction era and contemporary debates about race.

“Like many, I'm concerned about recent attacks on the humanities and have wanted to show how vital the humanities can be to understanding our past and present,” Levine said.

His most recent book, “The Failed Promise: Reconstruction, Frederick Douglass, and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson,” published by W. W. Norton in 2021, was written for a broad audience. To help promote the book to general readers, Levine wrote op-eds for newspapers and magazines such as The Washington Post and Time and presented at public venues such as bookstores, libraries, museums and the Smithsonian. He hopes to complete “After Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by early 2025 for publication in late 2025 or early 2026.