I was raised to understand an extremely important, but usually overlooked, aspect of United States history – that the abolitionists were bloodthirsty terrorists. And, of all those vipers, none were as dangerous, deranged or psychotic as John Brown. As of yet, he has not been transformed into a national hero, though
Not to be confused with
As I watched the livestream of President-Elect Trump’s first official news conference a few days ago, my mind drifted to a book I read long ago as an undergraduate: The Golden Bough by James Frazer. Frazer was the foremost scholar of religion of his era, and in this book—