LEADER 03603nam 2200661Ia 450 001 9910826811003321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a1-283-30390-6 010 $a9786613303905 010 $a0-585-27413-4 010 $a0-520-92803-2 024 7 $a10.1525/9780520928039 035 $a(CKB)111057870453494 035 $a(EBL)223618 035 $a(OCoLC)45729382 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000265605 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11204472 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000265605 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10299622 035 $a(PQKB)11026493 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC223618 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse31016 035 $a(DE-B1597)520476 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780520928039 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL223618 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10539246 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL330390 035 $a(EXLCZ)99111057870453494 100 $a19990120d2000 ub 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur|nu---|u||u 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 14$aThe unvarnished truth $epersonal narratives in nineteenth-century America /$fAnn Fabian 205 $a1st ed. 210 $aBerkeley $cUniversity of California Press$dc2000 215 $a1 online resource (271 p.) 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 0 $a0-520-21862-0 311 0 $a0-520-23201-1 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. 177-246) and index. 327 $tFront matter --$tCONTENTS --$tList of Illustrations --$tPreface --$tIntroduction --$tCHAPTER ONE. Beggars --$tCHAPTER TWO. Convicts --$tCHAPTER THREE. Slaves --$tCHAPTER FOUR. Prisoners of War --$tEPILOGUE. Lovers, Farm Wives, and Tramps --$tNotes --$tIndex 330 $aThe practice of selling one's tale of woe to make a buck has long been a part of American culture. The Unvarnished Truth: Personal Narratives in Nineteenth-Century America is a powerful cultural history of how ordinary Americans crafted and sold their stories of hardship and calamity during the nineteenth century. Ann Fabian examines the tales of beggars, convicts, ex-slaves, prisoners of the Confederacy, and others to explore cultural authority, truth-telling, and the nature of print media as the country was shifting to a market economy. This well-crafted book describes the fascinating controversies surrounding these little-read tales and returns them to the social worlds where they were produced. Drawing on an enormous number of personal narratives-accounts of mostly poor, suffering, and often uneducated Americans-The Unvarnished Truth analyzes a long-ignored tradition in popular literature. Historians have treated the spread of literacy and the growth of print culture as a chapter in the democratization of refinement, but these tales suggest that this was not always the case. Producing stories that purported to be the plain, unvarnished truth, poor men and women edged their way onto the cultural stage, using storytelling strategies far older than those relying on a Renaissance sense of refinement and polish. This book introduces a unique collection of tales to explore the nature of truth, authenticity, and representation. 606 $aAutobiography 606 $aPoor$zUnited States$vBiography 607 $aUnited States$xHistory$y19th century$vBiography 615 0$aAutobiography. 615 0$aPoor 676 $a920.073 700 $aFabian$b Ann$01678843 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910826811003321 996 $aThe unvarnished truth$94046738 997 $aUNINA