American heretic: Theodore Parker and transcendentalism

Theodore Parker (1810-1860) was a powerful preacher who rejected the authority of the Bible and of Jesus, a brilliant scholar who became a popular agitator for the abolition of slavery and for women's rights, and a political theorist.

Dean Grodzins offers a compelling account of the remarkable first phase of Parker's career, when this complex man rose from poverty and obscurity to fame and notoriety as a Transcendentalist prophet.