A unique, enticing biography of America's most famous impresario, a
man who in Harris' view embodied and typified the crude
egalitarianism, the mania for speculation, and the vulgarization of
taste which overtook America during the shift from Jeffersonian
republicanism to Jacksonian democracy. A Connecticut Yankee who
spent his poor-boy childhood in an atmosphere of "contest,
competition and conquest" Barnum quickly learned to exploit the
gullibility which made up the under, side of America's hardheaded
materialism, the show-me-I'm-from-Missouri skepticism so deeply
ingrained in our national life. Barnum the impostor, the master of
humbug who displayed bearded ladies, midgets and woolly horses,
realized instinctively that the new public would pay for the
privilege of being deceived - as long as it was also amused. In an
age which glorified "the common man" and deified "Nature" and
"Science," Barnum exhibited his freaks, his "curiosities" and his
believe-it-or-not marvels (a "mermaid" with the body of a fish and
head and arms of an ape), inviting the public to match wits and
opinions with the experts. It was a pitch perfectly attuned to the
vanities and conceits of a populace which exalted "common sense"
and mistrusted special erudition and higher learning; it made
Barnum rich and, by the end of his life, respectable. Harris argues
that the secret of his success was not cynicism ("there's one born
every minute") but his ability to capitalize on the "social myths
and public slogans" of the time. Barnum believed sincerely that his
hoaxing was "social therapy"; seen in this light he becomes part of
the ongoing dispute about the function of popular culture - a
dispute which links Barnum to such unlikely figures as Twain,
Melville, Poe and the Transoendentalists. Harris plots the ups and
downs of the remarkable career from General Tom Thumb to Jenny Lind
to "The Greatest Show on Earth" and en route makes an entertaining
and original foray into American social history, real and ersatz.
(Kirkus Reviews)
This book is one of the most valuable contributions to American
cultural studies of the nineteenth century in recent years. It
explores analytically and critically American cultural life, the
developing urbanization between 1840 and the 1880s, and some major
patterns within that movement, through the prism of the career and
doings of P.T. Barnum.
General
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