aRough Writing is much more than a fascinating account of the
little-known relationship between an American president and the
immigrant authors whose work he promoted in the service of a new
national narrative. Meticulously researched and lucidly written,
Rough Writing enables us to see a vital period in American
literature through new eyes.a
--Laura Browder, author of "Slippery Characters: Ethnic
Impersonators and American Identities"
As the United States struggled to absorb a massive influx of
ethnically diverse immigrants at the turn of the twentieth century,
the question of who and what an American is took on urgent
intensity. It seemed more critical than ever to establish a
definition by which Americanness could be established, transmitted,
maintained, and judged. Americans of all stripes sought to
articulate and enforce their visions of the nationas past, present,
and future; central to these attempts was President Theodore
Roosevelt.
Roosevelt fully recognized the narrative component of American
identity, and he called upon authors of diverse European
backgrounds including Israel Zangwill, Jacob Riis, Elizabeth Stern,
and Finley Peter Dunne to promote the nation in popular written
form. With the swell and shift in immigration, he realized that a
more encompassing national literature was needed to aexpress and
guide the soul of the nation.a Rough Writing examines the
surprising place and implications of the immigrant and of ethnic
writing in Rooseveltas America and American literature.
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