Rereading the Revolution: The Turn-of-the-century American Revolutionary War Novel

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Popular Press, 2000 - Literary Criticism - 238 pages

Approximately fifty historical novels dealing with the American Revolution were published in the United States from 1896 to 1906. Benjamin S. Lawson critically examines the narrative strategies employed in these works and the ways in which fiction is made to serve the purpose of vivifying national history.
Writing within the conventions of the historical romance, these authors created plots that reflect the enveloping concerns of the War for Independence, such as the young American woman who often must choose between suitors on opposite sides in the wider conflict.
Lawson concludes that these works reassured readers of the worth of an Anglo-American heritage. They were escapist fantasies to the degree that they failed to confront contemporary realities of crisis and change: the New Immigration, urbanization and industrialization, labor strife, the plight of the poor, and agitation on behalf of women and ethnic minorities.

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Contents

New England
27
A Revolutionary LoveStory
35
From Kingdom to Colony
42
Brinton Eliot
50
Barbara Ladd
60
The Middle Colonies
69
The South
121
The West
167
Conclusion
207
Notes
215
Bibliography
221
Index
231
Copyright

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Page 222 - THE COLONIALS. BEING A NARRATIVE OF EVENTS CHIEFLY CONNECTED WITH THE SIEGE AND EVACUATION OF THE TOWN OF BOSTON IN NEW ENGLAND.

About the author (2000)

Benjamin S. Lawson's teaching career has been spent largely in the South at Albany State University in Georgia, where he specializes in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century American literature.

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