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"This powerful and lively package of primary materials and
historical context will demonstrate how historical 'forces' play
themselves out on the ground. Kierner's collection offers a fresh
lens on a new world struggling into being and will inspire teachers
and students of all ages alike."
--Catherine Allgor, author of "A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and
the Creation of the American Nation"
aThe Contrast makes a real contribution to the existing
scholarship on this period, it has great appeal for classroom use,
and it puts back in print an amusing play that is instrumental in
understanding critical issues in the new nation. The play aThe
Contrasta centers on gender roles, relations, and expectations,
mocking the gender stereotypes of the day and is a rich source for
understanding a host of political and social issues in the Early
Republic. It is funnyaeven to a modern audienceaand replete with
literary references.a
--Charlene M. Boyer Lewis, author of "Ladies and Gentlemen on
Display: Planter Society at the Virginia Springs, 1790-1860"
aI can think of no other text of the period that lays out the
drive toward transparency more clearly or denigrates coquettes and
libertines more entertainingly. The play is a pivotal piece of
American cultural history.a
--Norma Basch, author of "Framing American Divorce: From the
Revolutionary Generation to the Victorians"
"The Contrast," which premiered at New York City's John Street
Theater in 1787, was the first American play performed in public by
a professional theater company. The play, written by New
England-born, Harvard-educated, Royall Tyler was timely, funny,
andextremely popular. When the play appeared in print in 1790,
George Washington himself appeared at the head of its list of
hundreds of subscribers.
Reprinted here with annotated footnotes by historian Cynthia A.
Kierner, Tyler's play explores the debate over manners, morals, and
cultural authority in the decades following American Revolution.
Did the American colonists' rejection of monarchy in 1776 mean they
should abolish all European social traditions and hierarchies? What
sorts of etiquette, amusements, and fashions were appropriate and
beneficial? Most important, to be a nation, did Americans need to
distinguish themselves from Europeans -- and, if so, how?
Tyler was not the only American pondering these questions, and
Kierner situates the play in its broader historical and cultural
contexts. An extensive introduction provides readers with a
background on life and politics in the United States in 1787, when
Americans were in the midst of nation-building. The book also
features a section with selections from contemporary letters,
essays, novels, conduct books, and public documents, which debate
issues of the era.
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