VegHist Ep 12: Radicals & Romantics. Bible Christians, Grahamites, and Transcendentalists

Update: 2017-04-28

Description

In the 1800s, overlapping circles of utopians, mystics, and romantics in both Europe and America develop arguments against meat until “vegetarianism” finally becomes a real movement.

Episode 12: Radicals & Romantics

In the aftermath of the American and French revolutions, the sects and philosophies that embrace a “vegetable diet” multiply – from ecstatic cult to puritan crusades, to utopian community to public-spirited congregation. No longer are they isolated groups – they connect with each other in books, magazines, and letters. Until a single word catches on – “vegetarianism”.

In the United States of America, Ian discovers the the vegetarian sword and shoes of a 1790s “free love” vegetarian sect in a local Massachusetts museum, and visits the failed vegan commune where Louisa May “Little Women” Alcott lived as a child.

And in Salford, NW England, he walks in the footsteps of a nineteenth century vegetarian church, with local historian Derek Antrobus and the vegetarian history specialist Dr Samantha Calvert.

It’s a story that also takes in the French bohemian “cult of the bearded men”, the man who invented the modern idea of Robin Hood, the woman who invented Frankenstein and his creature, Sylvester Graham, and, finally, the creation of modern vegetarianism.

Play or download (65MB MP3 47min) (via iTunes) or read transcript

The twine handle of William Dorrel’s sword, on display in Deerfields

Old sword handle, wrapped in twine, with Museum caption naming the owner

</noscript> Old sword handle, wrapped in twine, with Museum caption naming the owner

The twine handle of William Dorrel’s sword, on display in Deerfields

</figcaption>
</figure>

Deerfields Museum director Timothy Neumann (and Dorrell’s shoes)

Ian talks to a man with glasses and moustache, over a very old pair of shoes

</noscript> Ian talks to a man with glasses and moustache, over a very old pair of shoes

Deerfields Museum director Timothy Neumann (and Dorrell’s shoes)

</figcaption>
</figure>

Close-up of William Dorrell’s revolution-era vegan shoes

Cloth and wood shoes, with a museum label describing their vegan maker

</noscript> Cloth and wood shoes, with a museum label describing their vegan maker

Close-up of William Dorrell’s revolution-era vegan shoes

</figcaption>
</figure>

These steps are the only remains of the Bible Christian Church that once dominated British vegetarianism

Two people point to some steps into a car park

</noscript> Two people point to some steps into a car park

These steps are the only remains of the Bible Christian Church that once dominated British vegetarianism

</figcaption>
</figure>

Derek Antrobus and Samantha Calvert in Salford Art Gallery and Museum

Man and woman chatting in art gallery

</noscript> Man and woman chatting in art gallery

Comments

In Channel

Spillover Diseases: Covid-19 & Zoonoses, with Jonna Mazet and Aysha Akhtar

2020-04-29--:--

VegHist Ep 15: Liberation. Veganism, hippies, and the animal rights movement

2017-09-13--:--

VegHist Ep 14: Diet Reform. Consumerism, Lebensreform, and Gandhi

2017-06-29--:--

VegHist Ep 13: The Vegetarians. Abolitionism, colonialism, and Victorian reformers; with Julia Twigg and Bhaskar Chakraborty. In London

2017-05-16--:--

VegHist Ep 12: Radicals & Romantics. Bible Christians, Grahamites, and Transcendentalists

2017-04-28--:--

VegHist Ep 11: Enlightenment. Colonial India, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Les Bardus

2017-02-07--:--

VegHist Ep 10: Revolution. English civil war, diet gurus, and the poetry of Sensibility

2017-01-03--:--

VegHist Ep 9: Renaissance. Descartes, Montaigne, Gassendi, and the “sparing diet”

2016-12-08--:--

VegHist Ep 8: Contacts. Indian Sufism, Bhakti, Akbar, Portuguese Christianity, and Gaudiya Vaishnavism

2016-10-06--:--

VegHist Ep 7: Heresies. On Chinese Buddhists, Cathars, Bogomils, Islam, and Manichaeans

2016-09-0647:38

VegHist Ep 6: Hinduism. On Indian Vegetarianism, Vaishnavism, Satvik, and Mahayana Buddhism

2016-07-05--:--

Kerry McCarthy MP on Brexit

2016-06-11--:--

VegHist Ep 5: Flesh and Spirit. On Egyptian monasticism, Early Christianity, Plutarch, Neoplatonism, and Manicheansim

2016-06-07--:--

VegHist Ep 4: Ashoka

2016-05-03--:--

VegHist Ep 3: Pythagoreans

2016-04-05--:--

VegHist Ep 2: The Middle Path

2016-03-01--:--

VegHist Episode 1: Ahimsa

2016-01-22--:--

Digital Vegans: Picking up the Tab, with Stephanie Redcross of Vegan Mainstream

2014-02-0216:24

Palm Oil: with Catherine Laurence, Eric Lambin, Orangutan rescuer Daniek Hendarto, RSPO SG Darrel Webber

2013-09-1329:46

Science Fiction and Animals: from Jonathan Swift and HG Wells to Star Trek and Doctor Who; with Sherryl Vint, Robert McKay, and Tara Lomax

2013-07-0529:24

00:00

VegHist Ep 12: Radicals & Romantics. Bible Christians, Grahamites, and Transcendentalists

#box-pro-ellipsis-176650888563915{-webkit-line-clamp:2;}VegHist Ep 12: Radicals & Romantics. Bible Christians, Grahamites, and Transcendentalists

Episode 12: Radicals & Romantics

The twine handle of William Dorrel’s sword, on display in Deerfields

The twine handle of William Dorrel’s sword, on display in Deerfields

Deerfields Museum director Timothy Neumann (and Dorrell’s shoes)

Deerfields Museum director Timothy Neumann (and Dorrell’s shoes)

Close-up of William Dorrell’s revolution-era vegan shoes

Close-up of William Dorrell’s revolution-era vegan shoes

These steps are the only remains of the Bible Christian Church that once dominated British vegetarianism

These steps are the only remains of the Bible Christian Church that once dominated British vegetarianism

Derek Antrobus and Samantha Calvert in Salford Art Gallery and Museum

VegHist Ep 12: Radicals & Romantics. Bible Christians, Grahamites, and Transcendentalists

Ian McDonald

VegHist Ep 12: Radicals & Romantics. Bible Christians, Grahamites, and Transcendentalists