So today in my undergraduate summer history class I taught about the Nazis who came to the US

[Hekate]

19. Critics from which century? In its time it was a powerful indictment against slavery...

… not just the US, but around the world. President Lincoln, on being introduced to Harriet Beecher Stowe, is said to have remarked to her, “So you’re the little lady whose book started this great war…”

Whatever criticisms we may have in the 21st century, however we may cringe at the long-suffering piety of Uncle Tom or fail to be moved by the travails of Little Eva crossing the ice floes — in the 19th century the portrayal of the suffering of slaves, the callousness of their owners, and the brutality of Simon Legree pounded home the lesson of this stain on our country to people in the non-slave states who were not already abolitionists and gave strength to the impassioned arguments of those who were already abolitionists.

People around the world were moved. Plays based on the book were performed — one such appears in The King and I / aka Anna and the King of Siam.

But enough. I simply believe in historical and cultural context, and not denigrating and dismissing literary works that don’t pass muster in today’s world in every aspect.