All-purpose | Everything Else

The Showman and the Slave: Race, Death, and Memory in Barnum's America

by Benjamin Reiss

2021-05-26 05:16:05

Compare Price
In this compelling story about one of the nineteenth century''s most famous Americans, Benjamin Reiss uses P. T. Barnum''s Joice Heth hoax to examine the contours of race relations in the antebellum North. Barnum''s first exhibit as a showman, Heth w... Read more
In this compelling story about one of the nineteenth century''s most famous Americans, Benjamin Reiss uses P. T. Barnum''s Joice Heth hoax to examine the contours of race relations in the antebellum North. Barnum''s first exhibit as a showman, Heth was an elderly enslaved woman who was said to be the 161-year-old former nurse of the infant George Washington. Seizing upon the novelty, the newly emerging commercial press turned her act--and especially her death--into one of the first media spectacles in American history.

In piecing together the fragmentary and conflicting evidence of the event, Reiss paints a picture of people looking at history, at the human body, at social class, at slavery, at performance, at death, and always--if obliquely--at themselves. At the same time, he reveals how deeply an obsession with race penetrated different facets of American life, from public memory to private fantasy. Concluding the book is a piece of historical detective work in which Reiss attempts to solve the puzzle of Heth''s real identity before she met Barnum. His search yields a tantalizing connection between early mass culture and a slave''s subtle mockery of her master. Less

Book Details

ISBN9780674055643
autor-image
Benjamin Reiss
Author
Benjamin Reiss is a professor of English at Emory University. The author of The Showman and the Slave and Theaters of Madness, and the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship, he lives in Atlanta, Georgi...

Compare Prices

Store Availability Book Format Condition Price
Indigo Books & Music In Stock Buy CAD 31.50
Indigo Books & MusicIn Stock
Format
Condition
Buy CAD 31.50
Available Discount
No Discount available

Related Books

View All
Row, Row, Row Your Boat (Indestructibles Series)
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Hurricane Season
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
You Be You: Detox Your Life, Crush Your Limitations, and Own Your Awesome
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
House of Shadows: An Enthralling Historical Mystery
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Going to School
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Can't Make This Stuff Up!: Finding the Upside to Life's Downs
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Life Will Be the Death of Me: ...And You Too!
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid: Rowley Jefferson's Journal
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick!
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Good Night, Little Blue Truck
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
The Wonderful Things You Will Be
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Feed Your Best Friend Better: Easy, Nutritious Meals and Treats for Dogs
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
We Are Not Friends (You Are Not Small)
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
The Pout-Pout Fish
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
The Silent Woman (Cat Carlisle, Book 1)
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Secrets Between Us: An absolutely gripping psychological thriller
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (Indestructibles Series)
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Made for Me
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
American Moonshot: John F. Kennedy and the Great Space Race
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
The Book Club
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Clean & Lean: 30 Days, 30 Foods, a New You!
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
The Secret Wife: A captivating story of romance, passion and mystery
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Join us and get access to all
your favourite books

Sign up for free and start exploring thousands of eBooks today.

Sign up for free

Stay in touch.

© 2026 AMPLE READS