Early America and the Modern Imagination: Rewriting the Past in the Present

Recurring culture war controversies in the US--ranging from reproductive freedom and gender identity to racial inequality and immigration--often turn public attention to early American precedents. At the same time, early American figures and tropes enjoy a stunning cachet in popular culture. Early America and the Modern Imagination squarely interprets the significance and cultural uses of these transhistorical re-imaginings of the early American past. While drawing productively on public memory scholarship, this volume augments its neglect of early American studies. The collection's critical and pedagogical essays investigate how a variety of modalities--including literature, film, television, theatre, video games and graphic novels--rescript early America as a usable past for contemporary audiences. Early America and the Modern Imagination, therefore, interprets early American themes and their present-day echoes to grapple with the evolving and highly contested import of the American nation's past in the present cultural moment.

Author: Patrick M. Erben
Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Published: 06/30/2025
Pages: 360
Weight: 1.5lbs
Size: 9.21h x 6.14w x 0.81d
ISBN: 9781399536172