{"product_id":"philadelphia-stories-americas-literature-of-race-and-freedom-9780199970964","title":"Philadelphia Stories: America's Literature of Race and Freedom","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIn \u003cem\u003ePhiladelphia Stories\u003c\/em\u003e, Samuel Otter finds literary value, historical significance, and political urgency in a sequence of texts written in and about Philadelphia between the Constitution and the Civil War. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHistorians such as Gary B. Nash and Julie Winch have chronicled the distinctive social and political space of early national Philadelphia. Yet while individual writers such as Charles Brockden Brown, Edgar Allan Poe, and George Lippard have been linked to Philadelphia, no sustained attempt has been made to understand these figures, and many others, as writing in a tradition tied to the city's history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe site of William Penn's Holy Experiment in religious toleration and representative government and of the National Declaration and Constitution, near the border between slavery and freedom, Philadelphia was home to one of the largest and most influential free African American communities in the United States.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe city was seen by residents and observers as the laboratory for a social experiment with international consequences. Philadelphia would be the stage on which racial character would be tested and a possible future for the United States after slavery\u003cbr\u003ewould be played out.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt would be the arena in which various residents would or would not demonstrate their capacities to participate in the nation's civic and political life. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOtter argues that the Philadelphia experiment (the term used in the nineteenth century) produced a largely unacknowledged literary tradition of peculiar forms and intensities, in which verbal performance and social behavior assumed the weight of race and nation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Samuel Otter\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Oxford University Press, USA\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/01\/2013\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 408\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 5.90w x 1.00d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780199970964\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSamuel Otter\u003c\/strong\u003e is a Professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of \u003cem\u003eMelville's Anatomies\u003c\/em\u003e and the coeditor, with Geoffrey Sanborn, of \u003cem\u003eMelville and Aesthetics\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis title is not returnable\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Oxford University Press, USA","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":39937683783795,"sku":"0199970963","price":66.3,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/9255\/0515\/products\/img_07963b8c-8ea9-47ea-a7d1-eed689bf3840.jpg?v=1647995689","url":"https:\/\/bookstorenmore.com\/products\/philadelphia-stories-americas-literature-of-race-and-freedom-9780199970964","provider":"Bookstore N More","version":"1.0","type":"link"}