{"product_id":"contesting-the-past-reconstructing-the-nation","title":"Contesting the Past, Reconstructing the Nation","description":"In this study of Gilded Age literature and culture, Benjamin Railton proposes that in the years after Reconstruction, America’s identity was often contested through distinct and competing conceptions of the nation’s history. He argues that the United States moved toward unifying and univocal historical narratives in the years between the Centennial and Columbian Expositions, that ongoing social conflict provided sites for complications of those narratives, and that works of historical literature offer some of the most revealing glimpses into the nature of those competing visions.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGilded Age scholarship often connects the period to the 20thcentury American future, but Railton argues that it is just as crucial to see how the era relates to the American past. He closely analyses the 1876 and 1893 Expositions, finding that many of the period’s central trends, from technology to imperialism, were intimately connected to particular visions of the nation’s history. Railton’s concern is with four key social questions: race, Native Americans, women, and the South. He provides close readings of a number of texts for the ways they highlight these issues. He examines established classics (\u003cem\u003eThe Adventures of Huck Finn\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eThe Bostonians\u003c\/em\u003e); newer additions to the canon (\u003cem\u003eThe Conjure Woman\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eLife Among the Piutes\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Story of Avis\u003c\/em\u003e); largely forgotten bestsellers (\u003cem\u003eUncle Remus\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Grandissimes\u003c\/em\u003e); unrecovered gems (\u003cem\u003ePloughed Under\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eWhere the Battle Was Fought\u003c\/em\u003e); and autobiographical works by Douglass and Truth, poems by Harper and Piatt, and short stories by Woolson and Cook.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese readings, while illuminating the authors themselves, contribute to ongoing conversations over historical literature’s definition and value, and a greater understanding of not only American society in the Gilded Age, but also debates on our shared but contested history that remain very much alive in the present.","brand":"The University of Alabama Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55319104553304,"sku":"9780817357924","price":33.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780817357924_9ad48a9e-b0a1-47c9-83e2-8a68f973bec8.jpg?v=1777974356","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/contesting-the-past-reconstructing-the-nation","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}