Fanatics and Fire-eaters

Fanatics and Fire-eaters

Author: Lorman A. Ratner

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2010-10-01

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 025209221X

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In the troubled years leading up to the Civil War, newspapers in the North and South presented the arguments for and against slavery, debated the right to secede, and in general denounced opposing viewpoints with imagination and vigor. At the same time, new technologies like railroads and the telegraph lent the debates an immediacy that both enflamed emotions and brought the slavery issue into every home. Lorman A. Ratner and Dwight L. Teeter Jr. look at the power of America's fast-growing media to influence perception and the course of events prior to the Civil War. Drawing on newspaper accounts from across the United States, the authors look at how the media covered—and the public reacted to—major events like the Dred Scott decision, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, and the election of 1860. They find not only North-South disputes about the institution of slavery but differing visions of the republic itself—and which region was the true heir to the legacy of the American Revolution.


Apostles of Disunion

Apostles of Disunion

Author: Charles B. Dew

Publisher: University of Virginia Press

Published: 2017-02-03

Total Pages: 140

ISBN-13: 0813939453

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Charles Dew’s Apostles of Disunion has established itself as a modern classic and an indispensable account of the Southern states’ secession from the Union. Addressing topics still hotly debated among historians and the public at large more than a century and a half after the Civil War, the book offers a compelling and clearly substantiated argument that slavery and race were at the heart of our great national crisis. The fifteen years since the original publication of Apostles of Disunion have seen an intensification of debates surrounding the Confederate flag and Civil War monuments. In a powerful new afterword to this anniversary edition, Dew situates the book in relation to these recent controversies and factors in the role of vast financial interests tied to the internal slave trade in pushing Virginia and other upper South states toward secession and war.


Paradoxes of Prosperity

Paradoxes of Prosperity

Author: Lorman A. Ratner

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2010-10-01

Total Pages: 171

ISBN-13: 0252092228

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In the midst of the United States' immense economic growth in the 1850s, Americans worried about whether the booming agricultural, industrial, and commercial expansion came at the price of cherished American values such as honesty, hard work, and dedication to the common good. Was the nation becoming greedy, selfish, vulgar, and cruel? Was there such a thing as too much prosperity? At the same time, the United States felt the influence of the rise of popular mass-circulation newspapers and magazines and the surge in American book publishing. Concern over living correctly as well as prosperously was commonly discussed by leading authors and journalists, who were now writing for ever-expanding regional and national audiences. Women became more important as authors and editors, giving advice and building huge markets for women readers, with the magazine Godey's Lady's Book and novels by Susan Warner, Maria Cummins, and Harriet Beecher Stowe expressing women's views about the troubled state of society. Best-selling male writers--including novelist George Lippard, historian George Bancroft, and travel writer Bayard Taylor--were among those adding their voices to concerns about prosperity and morality and about America's place in the world. Writers and publishers discovered that a high moral tone could be exceedingly good for business. The authors of this book examine how popular writers and widely read newspapers, magazines, and books expressed social tensions between prosperity and morality. This study draws on that nationwide conversation through leading mass media, including circulation-leading newspapers, the New York Herald and the New York Tribune, plus prominent newspapers from the South and West, the Richmond Enquirer and the Cincinnati Enquirer. Best-selling magazines aimed at middle-class tastes, Harper's Magazine and the Southern Literary Messenger, added their voices, as did two leading business magazines.


Sherman's Other War

Sherman's Other War

Author: John F. Marszalek

Publisher: Kent State University Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9780873386197

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This work traces the roots of General Sherman's hostility toward the press and details his attempts to silence reporters during the American Civil War, culminating in his exclusion of all reporters from his famous March to the Sea.


The Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb

The Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb

Author: Henry Bibb

Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press

Published: 2001-02-01

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 029916893X

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First published in 1849 and largely unavailable for many years, The Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb is among the most remarkable slave narratives. Born on a Kentucky plantation in 1815, Bibb first attempted to escape from bondage at the age of ten. He was recaptured and escaped several more times before he eventually settled in Detroit, Michigan, and joined the antislavery movement as a lecturer. Bibb’s story is different in many ways from the widely read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave and Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. He was owned by a Native American; he is one of the few ex-slave autobiographers who had labored in the Deep South (Louisiana); and he writes about folkways of the slaves, especially how he used conjure to avoid punishment and to win the hearts of women. Most significant, he is unique in exploring the importance of marriage and family to him, recounting his several trips to free his wife and child. This new edition includes an introduction by literary scholar Charles Heglar and a selection of letters and editorials by Bibb.


Catharine Maria Sedgwick

Catharine Maria Sedgwick

Author: Lucinda L. Damon-Bach

Publisher: UPNE

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 380

ISBN-13: 9781555535483

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The essays in this volume examine the full breadth and complexity of the extensive oeuvre of American literary pioneer Catharine Maria Sedgwick (1789-1867).


Unquenchable Fire

Unquenchable Fire

Author: Rachel Pollack

Publisher: Gateway

Published: 2011-11-14

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 0575118555

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In an America where the miraculous is par for the course, where magic and myths are as real as shopping malls and television game shows, Jennifer Mazdan listens to the modern storytellers recite the tales of the Founders. But when strange things start to happen and Jennie becomes pregnant - from a dream - she enters a struggle which threatens her own life and causes her to question everything she has ever learned.


Miracle Mongers and Their Methods

Miracle Mongers and Their Methods

Author: Harry Houdini

Publisher: Cosimo, Inc.

Published: 2007-04-01

Total Pages: 125

ISBN-13: 1602060770

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Magicians debunking charlatans and revealing secrets of the trade: it's not something that Penn and Teller or James "The Amazing" Randi invented. The legendary Harry Houdini was doing the same thing a century ago, to popular acclaim. In this 1920 book, the master showman-and surprisingly entertaining writer-uncovers the mysteries behind such extraordinary feats as fire-eating, sword-swallowing, snake-charmers, and strong men. More a simple expose of stage trickery, though, this is a brisk history of such oddities throughout history and around the world, from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, from the culture of the Native Americans to that of Japan. This is a fascinating work of the strange and seemingly inexplicable made plain and understandable. Hungarian-American magician and professional skeptic EHRICH WEISS (1874-1926)-aka Harry Houdini, "Handcuff King and Jail Breaker"-also wrote Magical Rope Ties and Escapes (1920) and A Magician Among the Spirits (1924).


Fire in the Ashes

Fire in the Ashes

Author: Jonathan Kozol

Publisher: Crown

Published: 2013-09-03

Total Pages: 370

ISBN-13: 1400052475

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In this powerful and culminating work about a group of inner-city children he has known for many years, Jonathan Kozol returns to the scene of his previous prize-winning books, and to the children he has vividly portrayed, to share with us their fascinating journeys and unexpected victories as they grow into adulthood. For nearly fifty years, Jonathan has pricked the conscience of his readers by laying bare the savage inequalities inflicted upon children for no reason but the accident of being born to poverty within a wealthy nation. But never has his intimate acquaintance with his subjects been more apparent, or more stirring, than in Fire in the Ashes, as Jonathan tells the stories of young men and women who have come of age in one of the most destitute communities of the United States. Some of them never do recover from the battering they undergo in their early years, but many more battle back with fierce and often jubilant determination to overcome the formidable obstacles they face. As we watch these glorious children grow into the fullness of a healthy and contributive maturity, they ignite a flame of hope, not only for themselves but also for our society.


John Brown, Abolitionist

John Brown, Abolitionist

Author: David S. Reynolds

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2009-07-29

Total Pages: 592

ISBN-13: 0307486664

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An authoritative new examination of John Brown and his deep impact on American history.Bancroft Prize-winning cultural historian David S. Reynolds presents an informative and richly considered new exploration of the paradox of a man steeped in the Bible but more than willing to kill for his abolitionist cause. Reynolds locates Brown within the currents of nineteenth-century life and compares him to modern terrorists, civil-rights activists, and freedom fighters. Ultimately, he finds neither a wild-eyed fanatic nor a Christ-like martyr, but a passionate opponent of racism so dedicated to eradicating slavery that he realized only blood could scour it from the country he loved. By stiffening the backbone of Northerners and showing Southerners there were those who would fight for their cause, he hastened the coming of the Civil War. This is a vivid and startling story of a man and an age on the verge of calamity.