Mightier Than the Sword: Uncle Tom's Cabin and the Battle for America - Hardcover

David Reynolds

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 039308132X ISBN 13: 9780393081329

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co., 2011

Synopsis

David S. Reynolds presents a fascinating look at the cultural roots, political impact and enduring legacy of Harriet Beecher Stowe's revolutionary bestseller at the time of the two hundredth anniversary of Stowe's birth. Reynolds reveals the book's impact, not only on the abolitionist movement and the American Civil War but also on worldwide events, including the end of serfdom in Russia, up to its influence in the twentieth century. He explores how both Stowe's background in a famously intellectual family of preachers and her religious visions were fundamental to the novel. And he demonstrates why the book was beloved by millions while fuelling conflicts over the meaning of America. Although vilified over the years as often as praised, Uncle Tom's Cabin has remained a cultural landmark, proliferating in the form of plays, songs, films and merchandise-a legacy that has both fed and contested American racial stereotypes.

About this title

Review

Fascinating...a lively and perceptive cultural history.--The New Yorker

A subtle and splendid history of the novel's effect on American culture.

Starred Review: A provocative overview of the life and afterlife of one of American literature's most important texts....A sharp work of cross-disciplinary criticism that gives new power to a diminished novel. Reynolds successfully repositions the novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe as a major political work, crucial not just to the abolitionist movement, but as kindling for the Civil War and an important inspiration to the cultural discussions of race relations through most of the 20th century.

Insightful, ....informative, ....rewarding.

Bravura work....Reynolds has given us another cultural history of assured mastery, a history that combines deep erudition, lightly worn, with a lively and readable style.

Reynolds is a virtuoso writer...A fitting tribute to the 200th anniversary of Harriet Beecher Stowe's birth.--Mike Harvkey

A wonderful history of what may justly be considered America's national epic.--Joan Hedrick, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life

About the Author

David S. Reynolds is a Distinguished Professor of English and American Studies at the City University of New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co.
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 039308132X
• ISBN 13: 9780393081329
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 351