American sensations : class, empire, and the production of popular culture / Shelley Streeby.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Streeby, Shelley, 1963-

Series:

American crossroads ; 9.

American crossroads ; 9

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American fiction--19th century--History and criticism.

American fiction.

Popular literature--United States--History and criticism.

Popular literature.

Literature and society--United States--History--19th century.

Literature and society.

Social classes in literature.

Sensationalism in literature.

Ethnic groups in literature.

Imperialism in literature.

Nativism in literature.

Race in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (402 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This innovative cultural history investigates an intriguing, thrilling, and often lurid assortment of sensational literature that was extremely popular in the United States in 1848--including dime novels, cheap story paper literature, and journalism for working-class Americans. Shelley Streeby uncovers themes and images in this "literature of sensation" that reveal the profound influence that the U.S.-Mexican War and other nineteenth-century imperial ventures throughout the Americas had on U.S. politics and culture. Streeby's analysis of this fascinating body of popular literature and mass culture broadens into a sweeping demonstration of the importance of the concept of empire for understanding U.S. history and literature. This accessible, interdisciplinary book brilliantly analyzes the sensational literature of George Lippard, A.J.H Duganne, Ned Buntline, Metta Victor, Mary Denison, John Rollin Ridge, Louisa May Alcott, and many other writers. Streeby also discusses antiwar articles in the labor and land reform press; ideas about Mexico, Cuba, and Nicaragua in popular culture; and much more. Although the Civil War has traditionally been a major period marker in U.S. history and literature, Streeby proposes a major paradigm shift by using mass culture to show that the U.S.-Mexican War and other conflicts with Mexicans and Native Americans in the borderlands were fundamental in forming the complex nexus of race, gender, and class in the United States.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Preface

1. Introduction: City and Empire in the American 1848

2. George Lippard's 1848: Empire, Amnesia, and the U.S.-Mexican War

3. The Story-Paper Empire

4. Foreign Bodies and International Race Romance

5. From Imperial Adventure to Bowery B'hoys and Buffalo Bill: Ned Buntline, Nativism, and Class

6. The Contradictions of Anti-Imperialism

7. The Hacienda, the Factory, and the Plantation

8. The Dime Novel, the Civil War, and Empire

9. Joaquín Murrieta and Popular Culture

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 343-377) and index.

ISBN:

9786612762505

9781282762503

1282762508

9780520935877

052093587X

OCLC:

475927756