David S. Reynolds presents a fascinating look at the cultural roots, political impact and enduring legacy of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s revolutionary bestseller at the time of the two hundredth anniversary of Stowe’s birth. Reynolds reveals the book’s impact, not only on the abolitionist movement and the American Civil War but also on worldwide events, including the end of serfdom in Russia, up to its influence in the twentieth century. He explores how both Stowe’s background in a famously intellectual family of preachers and her religious visions were fundamental to the novel. And he demonstrates why the book was beloved by millions while fuelling conflicts over the meaning of America. Although vilified over the years as often as praised, Uncle Tom’s Cabin has remained a cultural landmark, proliferating in the form of plays, songs, films and merchandise-a legacy that has both fed and contested American racial stereotypes.