Re-Reading the Early Republic: From Crevecoeur to Cooper

Led by Wayne Franklin, Jeffrey Walker, and Lance Schachterle

"Re-reading the Early Republic" will explore the expansion of the press as an element in American public culture from the end of the Revolution to 1830. This was a period of remarkable growth in both the number and nature of items published and in the role of the press in public life. Paying particular attention to the practices of textual production as these evolved across the five decades, we shall be concerned with three key issues:

Enriching American Studies Scholarship through the History of the Book

Philip Gura

James N. Green

Eliza Richards

Since its emergence as a separate discipline more than a half century ago, American studies has contributed significantly to innovative and revisionist scholarship. In this weeklong seminar, participants considered how the equally interdisciplinary field of the history of the book broadens and enriches topics that traditionally have comprised American studies and its constituent disciplines, including history and literature.

Books in American Lives, 1830-1890

Participants in the seminar will investigate how Americans of that period lived in a literary culture. We will investigate how books made themselves felt in home and public life through readings, discussion, and workshops based in part on the American Antiquarian Society's extensive collections of manuscripts, periodicals, and visual sources. Seminar participants will consider the material culture of literary culture. Our investigations may take us to historic sites with literary associations, antiquarian bookstores, public sculptures, and flea markets.

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