Eloquence Is Power: Oratory and Performance in Early America (Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia) - Hardcover

Gustafson, Sandra M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807825751 ISBN 13: 9780807825754

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 2000

Synopsis

This work examines the multiple traditions of sacred, diplomatic and political speech that flourished in British America and the early republic from colonization and throughout 1800. The performance semiotic of speech and text as a tool for understanding the American oratory tradition is developed.

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Review

Gustafson not only provides a new context for thinking about the verbal performances of prominent patriarchs like Cotton, Edwards, and Adams, but beautifully realizes the subversive potential of oral performance for outsiders like Sarah Edwards and Samson Occom. (Janice Knight, University of Chicago) YGustafson provides an intensive examination of the Colonial speech. ("Choice") Gustafson's contribution is lively, imaginative, and informed. ("Journal of American History") YThis book makes an innovative contribution to the history of the book in early America. ("William and Mary Quarterly") Gustafson's dramatic work convincingly and brilliantly shows how black, white, and Native American figures used the spoken word to challenge social hierarchies built on textual discipline. (Jay Fliegelman, Stanford University) [Gustafson] provides an intensive examination of the Colonial speech. ("Choice") [This book] makes an innovative contribution to the history of the book in early America. ("William and Mary Quarterly")

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0807825751
• ISBN 13: 9780807825754
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 320