1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910455015703321

Autore

Streeby Shelley <1963->

Titolo

American sensations [[electronic resource] ] : class, empire, and the production of popular culture / / Shelley Streeby

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, c2002

ISBN

1-282-76250-8

9786612762505

0-520-93587-X

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (402 p.)

Collana

American crossroads ; ; 9

Disciplina

813/.309355

Soggetti

American fiction - 19th century - History and criticism

Popular literature - United States - History and criticism

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

Social classes in literature

Sensationalism in literature

Ethnic groups in literature

Imperialism in literature

Nativism in literature

Race in literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

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

Nota di contenuto

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. JoaquĆ­n Murrieta and Popular Culture -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

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.