Going Underground: Race, Space, and the Subterranean in the Nineteenth-Century United States

The metaphorical concept of the underground, which symbolizes subversive activity, is explored in Lara Langer Cohen's book "Going Underground." She investigates a wide range of nineteenth-century US subterranean literature, including Black radical manifestos, anarchist periodicals, and sensationalist exposés of the urban underworld, and discovers that these undergrounds provide spaces for political possibility that go beyond resistance.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 03 February 2023
Publisher: Duke University Press

The concept of the underground, which was first popularized by newspaper coverage of the Underground Railroad in the 1840s, has since become a metaphor for subversive activity that remains central to our political vocabulary. In her book, Going Underground, Lara Langer Cohen explores the long history of this idea while seeking out versions of the underground that were left behind along the way. Cohen begins by outlining how the figurative sense of the underground first took shape through the associations of literal subterranean spaces with racialized Blackness. She then examines a vibrant world of nineteenth-century US subterranean literature, which includes Black radical manifestos, anarchist periodicals, sensationalist exposés of the urban underworld, manuals for sex magic, and the initiation rites of secret societies.

Cohen's findings reveal that the undergrounds in this literature offer sites of political possibility that exceed the familiar framework of resistance. She suggests that nineteenth-century undergrounds can inspire new modes of world-making and world-breaking for a time when this world feels increasingly untenable. Through her meticulous research and insightful analysis, Cohen provides a fresh perspective on the underground and its enduring significance in shaping our political and cultural landscape.

Weight: 422g
Dimension: 152 x 230 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781478019480