With its gripping plot and pungent dialogue, Uncle Tom’s Cabin offers readers today a passionate portrait of a nation on the verge of disunion and a surprisingly subtle examination of the relationship between race and nationalism that has always been at the heart of the American experience. This Broadview edition is based upon the first American edition of the novel and reprints its original illustrations and preface. In addition, it reprints all of the prefaces that Stowe wrote for authorized European editions of Uncle Tom’s Cabin , offers a wide array of appendices that clarify the novel’s participation in antebellum debates about domesticity, colonization, abolitionism, and the law, and includes sections on dramatic adaptations of the novel.