Synopsis
James Marshall's illuminating study of dispossession on the frontier begins with the autobiography of a pioneer who met repeated failure. Writing in his old age, Omar Morse (1824-1901) loked back on the successive loss of three homesteads in mid-nineteenth century Wisconsin and Minnesota. The frontier as Morse encountered it was a place of runaway land speculation, of high railroad freight rates, of mortgage foreclosures, and of political and economic chaos. Stoic and resilient in adversity, Morse nevertheless expressed the anger of those for whom the Jeffersonian ideal of an independent yeomanry proved to be a cruel illusion. Marshall moves from Morse's narrative to the historical record of the thousands of similarly dispossessed pioneers and to the legacy of their failure. Politically, their anger was expressed in a grassroots movement that led to formation of the Populist party in the 1880s and 1890s. Culturally, dispossession became a theme in their literature, exemplified in Mark Twain's and Charles Dudley Warner's The Gilded Age and in novels by such Realists as Edward Eggleston, Joseph Kirkland, and Hamlin Garland. Land Fever thus presents the underside of disappointment that has long been the great ignored reality of the splendid success myth of the American frontier.
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Review
"Blends scholarship with sensitivity to create an exciting book for all serious students of Americana." -- "Choice"
"An authentic nineteenth-century American voice crying in the desert. It is worth hearing." -- "Journal of American History"
"Blends scholarship with sensitivity to create an exciting book for all serious students of Americana." -- Choice
"An authentic nineteenth-century American voice crying in the desert. It is worth hearing." -- Journal of American History
-Blends scholarship with sensitivity to create an exciting book for all serious students of Americana.- -- Choice
-An authentic nineteenth-century American voice crying in the desert. It is worth hearing.- -- Journal of American History
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Land Fever: Dispossession and the Frontier Myth
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LAND FEVER; DISPOSSESSION AND THE FRONTIER MYTH
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Land Fever Dispossession And The Frontier Myth
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Land Fever: Dispossession and the Frontier Myth
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Land Fever: Dispossession and the Frontier Myth
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LAND FEVER: DISPOSSESSION AND THE FRONTIER MYTH.
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Land Fever: Dispossession and the Frontier Myth
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Land Fever. Dispossession and the Frontier Myth
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ISBN 10: 081311568X
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Cloth. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition. Hardback. First Edition. Message to previous owner to inside cover signed by the author's daughter. The story of the American frontier has been told often: landless but courageous pioneers claim their piece of the untamed West, clear the land, and become in time prosperous farmers or town founders. Their deeds form an important chapter in the Great American Success Story. But what of those pioneers, equally courageous and hard-working, who failed because of bad luck, miscalculation, or the greed of the money lenders. Their numbers were legion. This book is their story. The author's illuminating study of dispossession on the frontier begins with the autobiography of a pioneer who met repeated failure. Writing in his old age, Omar Morse (1824-1901) looked back on the successive lost of three homesteads in mid-nineteenth century Wisconsin and Minnesota. The frontier as Morse encountered it was a place of runaway land specualtion, of high railroad freight rates, of mortgage foreclosures, and of political and economic chaos. Stoic and resilent in adversity, Morse nevertheless expressed the anger of those for whom the Jeffersonian ideal of an independent yeomanry proved to be a cruel illusion. Marshall moves from Morse's narrative to the historical record of thousands of similarly dispossessed pioneers and to the legacy of their failure. Politically, their anger was expressed in a grassroots movement that led to formation of the Populist party in the 1880s and 1890s. Culturally, dispossession became an important literary theme. This book thus presents the underside of disappointment that has long been the great ignored reality of the splendid success myth of the American frontier. As such, it opens new vistas for historians and literary scholars alike. 239 pp. (We carry a wide selection of titles in The Arts, Theology, History, Politics, Social and Physical Sciences. academic and scholarly books and Modern First Editions ,and all types of Academic Literature.). Seller Inventory # 089205
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