Description
Book SynopsisThis introduction to American literature and culture from 1900 to 1960 is organized around four major ideas about America: that is it big, new, rich, and free.
- Illustrates the artistic and social climate in the USA during this period.
- Juxtaposes discussion of history, popular culture, literature and other art forms in ways that foster discussion, questioning, and continued study.
- An appendix lists relevant primary and secondary works, including websites.
- An ideal supplement to primary texts taught in American literature courses.
Trade Review"To call this an 'introduction' or 'guide' to its topic is accurate but modest...McDonald does not attempt to redefine texts so much as portray their coincidental nature...Highly Recommended."
ChoiceTable of ContentsList of Illustrations vii
Timeline viii
Acknowledgments xxii
Introduction 1
1 Big 6
Expansion and its Discontents 12
The City 19
Representing Nature 36
Apocalypse 43
The Sense of Place 48
2 Rich 60
Weber and Veblen: Reasons to Work and Reasons to Spend 66
USA 71
Work and Identity 79
Labor Reform 91
Consumption and Identity 99
3 New 110
Beginning Anew: Crevecoeur and Hawthorne 115
Young America 119
Making It New I: Literary Modernism 128
Making It New II: The Other Arts 149
4 Free 165
The Multiple Meanings of Freedom 170
War and the Affirmation of American Values 173
Writing War 180
Upstream Against the Mainstream 187
“An Inescapable Network of Mutuality” 203
Notes 211
Websites for Further Study of American Literature and Culture 215
Bibliography 217
Index 231
