American Declarations: Rebellion and Repentance in American Cultural History

Declarations from Nathaniel Hawthorne, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Abraham Lincoln, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mark Twain, Sinclair Lewis, and Robert Frost, among others, have come to shape and define the nation.Harold K. Bush Jr. considers the mythic and rhetorical content of these definitive statements, which generally occur in the midst of cultural conflict, and clarifies how these pivotal moments both defend and reshape the "myth" that is the United States.Significant moments in our literary history -- in public speeches like Lincoln's first inaugural address, Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?" or Robert Frost's recital at John F. Kennedy's inauguration -- both reflect and foster our beliefs of who Americans are and what America means. View Less