A Radical Vision, the first full-length biography of Elihu Burritt (1810–1879), was published by Central Connecticut State University that holds his archives.

It chronicles the life of the archetypal dissident who fought for the end of slavery in the antebellum years, became the most committed pacifist in American history, and was renowned for his self-educated mastery of many languages.

Known as the “Learned Blacksmith” and famous in his day, Burritt is a forgotten figure in most accounts of his time, though he was admired by friends such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Charles Sumner.

As a proponent of interracial education and an advocate for a United Nations, a World Court, and arms-control treaties, Burritt was an idealist and visionary far ahead of his times.