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The War on Words: Slavery, Race, and Free Speech in American Literature
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The War on Words: Slavery, Race, and Free Speech in American Literature Hardback - 2010

by Michael T. Gilmore

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Reader reviews for The War on Words: Slavery, Race, and Free Speech in American Literature

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How did slavery and race impact American literature in the nineteenth century? In this ambitious book, Michael T. Gilmore argues that they were the carriers of linguistic restriction, and writers from Frederick Douglass to Stephen Crane wrestled with the demands for silence and circumspection that accompanied the antebellum fear of disunion and the postwar reconciliation between the North and South.

Proposing a radical new interpretation of nineteenth-century American literature, The War on Words examines struggles over permissible and impermissible utterance in works ranging from Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" to Henry James's The Bostonians. Combining historical knowledge with groundbreaking readings of some of the classic texts of the American past, The War on Words places Lincoln's Cooper Union address in the same constellation as Margaret Fuller's feminism and Thomas Dixon's defense of lynching. Arguing that slavery and race exerted coercive pressure on freedom of expression, Gilmore offers here a transformative study that alters our understanding of nineteenth-century literary culture and its fraught engagement with the right to speak.

Details

  • Title The War on Words: Slavery, Race, and Free Speech in American Literature
  • Author Michael T. Gilmore
  • Binding Hardback
  • Pages 344
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher University of Chicago Press
  • Publication date 2010-07
  • Features Bibliography, Dust Cover, Index, Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9780226294131 / 0226294137
  • Weight 1.3 lbs (0.59 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.1 x 5.9 x 1 in (23.11 x 14.99 x 2.54 cm)
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: 19th Century
    • Chronological Period: 1851-1899
    • Topical: Civil War
  • Category Literature - Classics / Criticism
  • Library of Congress subjects Race in literature, American literature - 19th century - History
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2009048709
  • Dewey Decimal Code 810.935

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Citations

  • Choice, 05/01/2011, Page 0

About the author

Michael T. Gilmore is the Paul Prosswimmer Professor of American Literature at Brandeis University.

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Hardback. New. How did slavery and race impact American literature in the 19th century? This book argues that they were the carriers of linguistic restriction, and writers like Frederick Douglass wrestled with the demands for silence and circumspection that accompanied the antebellum fear of disunion and the postwar reconciliation between the North and South.
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The War on Words: Slavery, Race, and Free Speech in American Literature
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The War on Words: Slavery, Race, and Free Speech in American Literature

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The War on Words: Slavery, Race, and Free Speech in American Literature

by Gilmore, Michael T

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by Gilmore, Michael T,

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