Talk:Orestes Brownson

Brownson and the Workingman's Party
There is no question that Brownson was supportive, for a time, of the faction of Robert Dale Owen and Fanny Wright, in the NY Workingman's Party. But he doesn't even merit an index listing in Walter Hugins' Jacksonian Democracy and the Working Class, one of the standard work on the movement. One of his obituaries contains the claim that he "organized" a Workingman's Party, which may be where Miller gets the idea, but I've never seen any indication that it is correct. Hugins' book, despite some flaws, is the one which pays closest attention to who actually participated in the NY Workingman's Party. I recommend a look at pages 119-120, for a list—with "activity point totals" based on close analysis of party publications—of the leaders of the party. Brownson's name does not appear, though members of factions which were later excluded, such as Thomas Skidmore, do appear. Libertatia 00:21, 13 March 2006 (UTC)


 * Fair enough, and thanks for the information. Feel free to reword (and why not cite this explicitly in the article?).  -- Rbellin|Talk 00:42, 13 March 2006 (UTC)


 * I did a bit more checking. The association with the Free Enquirer, as corresponding editor, doesn't even seem to have been very long. He gets almost no mention in the Workingmen's papers I could check. (Workingman's Vanguard is in the APS Online collection.) What mentions there are refer to his launching of the Herald of Reform. Uncommon Jacksonians, one of the other good histories, mentions him in the context of party debates, but only just as a mention. Libertatia 00:52, 13 March 2006 (UTC)

Brownson was never a major player in the workingman's party, but he did also briefly edit the Genessee Republican, which was a pro-Workingman Party paper (See Carey, Orestes A. Brownson, pp. 32-34). BlueShirt 02:00, 19 November 2006 (UTC)

Missing burial?
"His remains were subsequently transferred to the crypt of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart..."

Subsequent to what? --208.62.152.236 00:38, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 04:20, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Too heavy on the citation needed template?
I see this on the page as it stands now: "He succeeded in persuading Sophia Ripley, wife of George Ripley,[citation needed] to convert, but few others." There is a link to the page on Sophia Ripley given at her name; details of her life are provided there. Why would there be a need to cite a specific source for each and every datum, for example, here on the phrase "wife of George Ripley"?? Is this vandalism? It certainly seems an overuse of the call for citations. If every sentence in Wikipedia has to have one to five citations, we will have an unmanageable task. Pernimius (talk) 20:17, 16 December 2018 (UTC)

Change Catholic importance value to high?
Orestes Brownson was one of the major American religious and intellectual figures in the nineteenth century. There are many volumes of his works available in the links. I would say that at least on the Catholic scale he should be HIGH in importance, definitely not LOW. Other categories may deserve upgrading too. Anyone disagree? Pernimius (talk) 19:55, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

Consider this praise by Peter J. Stanlis in a review of a book by Gregory S. Butler: "In the generation following the founding fathers of the American republic, Orestes Brownson (1803–1876), together with John C. Calhoun, was probably the most original and profound political thinker of the nineteenth century. Woodrow Wilson considered his most important book, The American Republic (1866), the best study of the American constitution." This argues for an elevation in the rating of the level of importance. Pernimius (talk) 21:10, 18 December 2018 (UTC)

Then there is this by Gerald Russello, editor of the University Bookman: "As the critic Russell Kirk has written, over his long life Brownson (1803-1876) knew practically everyone and wrote about practically everything in the nineteenth century. A prolific author, his collected works run to twenty volumes and include philosophy, political theory, fiction, reviews, and autobiography. After spending three days visiting with Brownson, Great Britain’s Lord Acton wrote to a colleague, “Intellectually, no American I have met comes near him,” and he was praised more recently by figures such as Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and Woodrow Wilson." Pernimius (talk) 17:50, 22 December 2018 (UTC)

Review of Carlyle's Chartism
The implication of the article is that Carlyle's book supported Chartism, that Brownson supported Carlyle's view and that this socialist leaning caused controversy. I read it differently. Carlyle supported the 'Great Man' view of history. Carlyle's writing is notoriously obscure, though. In the review Brownson said 'We have no patience with his mistiness, vagueness, and singularity.' - hardly a favourable review. Carlyle's book opposed Chartism with the idea that if the British had a 'Great Man' as a leader then the workers would put aside their agitation. The review is nearly 15000 words long, most of Brownson putting forward his own ideas, rather than reviewing the book, which explains why it was later issued as The Labouring Classes. The article seems to imply that this is a new title for Carlyle's Chartism, when it is in fact a title for Brownson's review. In The Labouring Classes Brownson calls for the dismantling of many institutions, including existing Churches, so it's hardly surprising it caused controversy. Quantropy (talk) 13:20, 16 June 2021 (UTC)

Dubuque Chess Journal
It was Brownson's son, also named Orestes August Brownson, who edited the Dubuqe chess journal, not Brownson. Please see Ryan, Thomas Orestes Brownson, a Definitive Biography, Our Sunday Visitor, 1976, p. 712

https://archive.org/details/orestesabrownson0000ryan/page/712/mode/2up?q=chess&view=theater 130.44.167.72 (talk) 16:47, 29 June 2023 (UTC)


 * also if you click on the original citation to the Dubuque website in the article, and you click on Brownson's name, you can see by the dates (1828-1892) that its not the same Brownson. 130.44.167.72 (talk) 16:52, 29 June 2023 (UTC)