Mightier than the Sword: and the Battle for America - Softcover

Reynolds, David S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0393342352 ISBN 13: 9780393342352

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2012

Synopsis

“Fascinating . . . a lively and perceptive cultural history.” ―Annette Gordon-Reed, The New Yorker

In this wide-ranging, brilliantly researched work, David S. Reynolds traces the factors that made Uncle Tom’s Cabin the most influential novel ever written by an American. Upon its 1852 publication, the novel’s vivid depiction of slavery polarized its American readership, ultimately widening the rift that led to the Civil War. Reynolds also charts the novel’s afterlife―including its adaptation into plays, films, and consumer goods―revealing its lasting impact on American entertainment, advertising, and race relations.

15 illustrations

About this title

About the Author

David S. Reynolds is Distinguished Professor of English and American Studies at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His books include Walt Whitman’s America: A Cultural Biography; John Brown, Abolitionist; Beneath the American Renaissance: The Subversive Imagination in the Age of Emerson and Melville; Mightier Than the Sword: “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and the Battle for America; Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson; Walt Whitman; George Lippard; and Faith in Fiction: The Emergence of Religious Literature in America. Reynolds is the editor or coeditor of seven books, including Whitman’s Leaves of Grass: The 150th Anniversary Edition, A Historical Guide to Walt Whitman, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin: The Splendid Edition, and George Lippard’s The Quaker City; or, The Monks of Monk Hall. He is the winner of the Bancroft Prize, the Christian Gauss Award, the Ambassador Book Award, the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Prize and has been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is a regular contributor to the New York Times Book Review.

Review

"David S. Reynolds is a brilliant writer & historian of unusually broad scope. His works are completely accessible to readers outside of the academic world and its dense terminology. He is a great thinker. He is a profound scholar, combining history & literary criticism to examine our country on all levels, all the while writing fluidly so that his books are a joy to read. I like everything about Reynolds' writing. Try one of his books and see what you think."  -Ann Rice, best-selling author of The Vampire Chronicles

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0393342352
• ISBN 13: 9780393342352
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368