Jared Gardner, The Rise and Fall of Early American Magazine Culture. Reviewed by Matthew Pethers

JARED GARDNER, The Rise and Fall of Early American Magazine Culture (Urbana: U of Illinois P, 2012), 203 pp. Reviewed by Matthew Pethers  Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.4 (2014) In surveying the field that Jared Gardner’s essential new book intervenes into, an optimistic observer might adapt his chosen title to offer the headline: “The Rise and…

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Nicole Eustace, 1812: War and the Passions of Patriotism; Andrew Lambert, The Challenge: Britain Against America in the Naval War of 1812; Paul Gilje, Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights in the War of 1812. Reviewed by Jasper Trautsch

NICOLE EUSTACE, 1812: War and the Passions of Patriotism (Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2012), xvii + 315 pp. ANDREW LAMBERT, The Challenge: Britain Against America in the Naval War of 1812 (London: Faber and Faber, 2012), 538 pp. PAUL GILJE, Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights in the War of 1812 (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2013),…

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Alison Clark Efford, German Immigrants, Race, and Citizenship in the Civil War Era. Reviewed by Frank Baron

ALISON CLARK EFFORD, German Immigrants, Race, and Citizenship in the Civil War Era (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2013), 267 pp. Reviewed by Frank Baron  Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.4 (2014)   With persistent attention to the role of German-Americans before and during the Civil War, it is refreshing to see a study that encompasses this important era…

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Christine L. Ridarsky and Mary M. Huth, eds., Susan B. Anthony and the Struggle for Equal Rights. Reviewed by Franziska Schmid

CHRISTINE L. RIDARSKY and MARY M. HUTH, eds., Susan B. Anthony and the Struggle for Equal Rights (Rochester: U of Rochester P, 2012), 245 pp. Reviewed by Franziska Schmid  Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.4 (2014) The nineteenth-century American cultural landscape bears witness to a large variety of reform movements. Susan B. Anthony and the Struggle for…

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Brenda Gayle Plummer, In Search of Power: African Americans in the Era of Decolonization, 1956 – 1974. Reviewed by Elizabeth West

BRENDA GAYLE PLUMMER, In Search of Power: African Americans in the Era of Decolonization, 1956 – 1974 (New York, NY: Cambridge UP, 2013), 372pp. Reviewed by Elizabeth West  Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.4 (2014)   In this historical study of the overlapping but often presumed separate African American Civil Rights period and the Era of Decolonization,…

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Thomas King, The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America. Reviewed by Kristina Baudemann

THOMAS KING, The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America (Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2013), 287 pp; (originally published in Canada by Doubleday, 2012) Reviewed by Kristina Baudemann  Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.4 (2014)   Thomas King’s The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America is not…

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Keith Clark, The Radical Fiction of Ann Petry. Reviewed by Julie Naviaux

KEITH CLARK, The Radical Fiction of Ann Petry (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2013), 264 pp. Reviewed by Julie Naviaux  Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.4 (2014) Clark begins his latest literary study, The Radical Fiction of Ann Petry, with a claim that calls for a complete reframing of Petry’s oeuvre: that Boston University’s Ann Petry archive demonstrates,…

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Babette Bärbel Tischleder, The Literary Life of Things: Case Studies in American Fiction. Reviewed by Martin Brückner

BABETTE BÄRBEL TISCHLEDER, The Literary Life of Things: Case Studies in American Fiction (Frankfurt: Campus, 2014), 292 pp. Reviewed by Martin Brückner Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.4 (2014)   Of the current scholarship driving the material turn in literary studies, Babette Tischleder’s The Literary Life of Things is a major contribution to critical efforts intent on…

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Dieter Schulz, Emerson and Thoreau, or Steps Beyond Ourselves: Studies in Transcendentalism. Reviewed by Johannes Voelz

DIETER SCHULZ, Emerson and Thoreau, or Steps Beyond Ourselves: Studies in Transcendentalism (Heidelberg: Mattes, 2012), 308 pp. Reviewed by Johannes Voelz Amerikastudien / American Studies 59.4 (2014) In 2013, the Ralph Waldo Emerson Society bestowed its highest honor—the “Lifetime Achievement Award”—on Dieter Schulz and thus recognized him as one of a very small group of scholars…

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