| The Showman and the Slave: Race, Death, and Memory in Barnum's America Contributor(s): Reiss, Benjamin (Author) |
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ISBN: 0674006364 ISBN-13: 9780674006362 Publisher: Harvard University Press OUR PRICE: $29.65 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: October 2001 Annotation: between early mass culture and a slave's subtle mockery of her master. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | United States - 19th Century - Social Science | Popular Culture - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - African American Studies |
| Dewey: 306.097 |
| LCCN: 2001024173 |
| Physical Information: 1.03" H x 6.46" W x 9.5" (1.34 lbs) 267 pages |
| Themes: - Topical - Black History - Chronological Period - 1800-1850 - Ethnic Orientation - African American - Chronological Period - 19th Century |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In this story about one of the 19th century's most famous Americans, Benjamin Reiss uses P.T. Barnum's Joice Heth hoax to examine the contours of race relations in the antebellum North. Barnum's first exhibit as a showman, Heth was an elderly enslaved woman who was said to be the 161-year-old former nurse of the infant George Washington. Seizing upon the novelty, the newly emerging commercial press turned her act - and especially her death - into one of the first media spectacles in American history. |