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Numerous books and articles have outlined Darwin's impact on
American scientists, philosophers, businessmen, and clergy in the
19th and early 20th centuries. Few, however, have undertaken a
study of Darwinism in the form in which it was presented to most
Americans -- popular newspapers and magazines. The main concern of
this book is to identify how the press is treated as a part of our
culture - - pointing to its ability to shape and to be shaped by
the forces that act on the rest of society and its ability to be
critical in the interpretation of ideas for "the masses."
Numerous books and articles have outlined Darwin's impact on
American scientists, philosophers, businessmen, and clergy in the
19th and early 20th centuries. Few, however, have undertaken a
study of Darwinism in the form in which it was presented to most
Americans -- popular newspapers and magazines. The main concern of
this book is to identify how the press is treated as a part of our
culture - - pointing to its ability to shape and to be shaped by
the forces that act on the rest of society and its ability to be
critical in the interpretation of ideas for "the masses."
Confederate Colonel John Singleton Mosby (1833-1916) was only one
of a number of heroes to emerge during the Civil War, yet he holds
a singular place in the American imagination. He is the
irrepressible rebel with a cause, the horseman who emerges from the
forest to protect the embattled farmer and his household and bring
retribution to the invader. Mosby was the fabled 'Gray Ghost' of
the Confederacy, a mythic cavalry officer who operated with virtual
impunity behind Union lines near Washington, D.C. Within his
lifetime, and continuing to the present, Mosby has been
appropriated as a cultural symbol. Mosby has regularly appeared in
various genres of popular culture throughout the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries, becoming a creation of novelists, poets,
Hollywood screenwriters, and biographers. But why has Mosby become
a figure of our collective imagination while other heroes of the
conflict have not? The Mosby Myth: A Confederate Hero in Life and
Legend by Paul Ashdown and Edward Caudill is the first book devoted
to explaining Mosby's place in American culture, myth, and legend.
Through the story of John Mosby, the authors examine how the Civil
War becomes memory, history, and myth through experience, art, and
mass communication. The Mosby Myth provides not just a biography of
John Mosby's life, but a study of his legacy. Ashdown and Caudill
present depictions of Mosby in fiction, cinema, and television, and
offer a revealing analysis that explains much about American
culture and the way it has been affected by the lingering impact of
the Civil War. Well-written and informative, this book is sure to
provoke new thought about the effect of the memory of Mosby-and the
memory of the Civil War-on American society and culture. The Mosby
Myth is an excellent resource for courses on the Civil War.
Custer's Last Stand remains one of the most iconic events in
American history and culture. Had Custer prevailed at the Little
Bighhorn, the victory would have been noteworthy at the moment,
worthy of a few newspaper headlines. In defeat, however tactically
inconsequential in the larger conflict, Custer became legend. In
Inventing Custer: The Making of an American Legend, Edward Caudill
and Paul Ashdown bridge the gap between the Custer who lived and
the one we've immortalized and mythologized into legend. While too
many books about Custer treat the Civil War period only as a
prelude to the Little Bighorn, Caudill and Ashdown present him as a
product of the Civil War, Reconstruction Era, and the Plains Indian
Wars. They explain how Custer became mythic, shaped by the press
and changing sentiments toward American Indians, and show the many
ways the myth has evolved and will continue to evolve as the United
States continues to change.
Custer's Last Stand remains one of the most iconic events in
American history and culture. Had Custer prevailed at the Little
Bighhorn, the victory would have been noteworthy at the moment,
worthy of a few newspaper headlines. In defeat, however tactically
inconsequential in the larger conflict, Custer became legend. In
Inventing Custer: The Making of an American Legend, Edward Caudill
and Paul Ashdown bridge the gap between the Custer who lived and
the one we've immortalized and mythologized into legend. While too
many books about Custer treat the Civil War period only as a
prelude to the Little Bighorn, Caudill and Ashdown present him as a
product of the Civil War, Reconstruction Era, and the Plains Indian
Wars. They explain how Custer became mythic, shaped by the press
and changing sentiments toward American Indians, and show the many
ways the myth has evolved and will continue to evolve as the United
States continues to change.
General William Tecumseh Sherman's devastating "March to the Sea"
in 1864 burned a swath through the cities and countryside of
Georgia and into the history of the American Civil War. As they
moved from Atlanta to Savannah-destroying homes, buildings, and
crops; killing livestock; and consuming supplies-Sherman and the
Union army ignited not only southern property, but also
imaginations, in both the North and the South. By the time of the
general's death in 1891, when one said "The March," no explanation
was required. That remains true today. Legends and myths about
Sherman began forming during the March itself, and took more
definitive shape in the industrial age in the late-nineteenth
century. Sherman's March in Myth and Memory examines the emergence
of various myths surrounding one of the most enduring campaigns in
the annals of military history. Edward Caudill and Paul Ashdown
provide a brief overview of Sherman's life and his March, but their
focus is on how these myths came about-such as one description of a
"60-mile wide path of destruction"-and how legends about Sherman
and his campaign have served a variety of interests. Caudill and
Ashdown argue that these myths have been employed by groups as
disparate as those endorsing the Old South aristocracy and its
"Lost Cause," and by others who saw the March as evidence of the
superiority of industrialism in modern America over a retreating
agrarianism. Sherman's March in Myth and Memory looks at the
general's treatment in the press, among historians, on stage and
screen, and in literature, from the time of the March to the
present day. The authors show us the many ways in which Sherman has
been portrayed in the media and popular culture, and how his
devastating March has been stamped into our collective memory.
Tracing the growth of creationism in America as a political
movement, this book explains why the particularly American
phenomenon of anti-evolution has succeeded as a popular belief.
Conceptualizing the history of creationism as a strategic public
relations campaign, Edward Caudill examines why this movement has
captured the imagination of the American public, from the explosive
Scopes trial of 1925 to today's heated battles over public school
curricula. Caudill shows how creationists have appealed to cultural
values such as individual rights and admiration of the rebel
spirit, thus spinning creationism as a viable, even preferable,
alternative to evolution. In particular, Caudill argues that the
current anti-evolution campaign follows a template created by
Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan, the Scopes trial's
primary combatants. Their celebrity status and dexterity with the
press prefigured the Moral Majority's 1980s media blitz, more
recent staunchly creationist politicians such as Sarah Palin and
Mike Huckabee, and creationists' savvy use of the Internet and
museums to publicize their cause. Drawing from trial transcripts,
media sources, films, and archival documents, Intelligently
Designed highlights the importance of historical myth in popular
culture, religion, and politics and situates this nearly
century-old debate in American cultural history.
General William Tecumseh Sherman's devastating "March to the Sea"
in 1864 burned a swath through the cities and countryside of
Georgia and into the history of the American Civil War. As they
moved from Atlanta to Savannah destroying homes, buildings, and
crops; killing livestock; and consuming supplies Sherman and the
Union army ignited not only southern property, but also
imaginations, in both the North and the South. By the time of the
general's death in 1891, when one said "The March," no explanation
was required. That remains true today. Legends and myths about
Sherman began forming during the March itself, and took more
definitive shape in the industrial age in the late-nineteenth
century. Sherman's March in Myth and Memory examines the emergence
of various myths surrounding one of the most enduring campaigns in
the annals of military history. Edward Caudill and Paul Ashdown
provide a brief overview of Sherman's life and his March, but their
focus is on how these myths came about such as one description of a
"60-mile wide path of destruction" and how legends about Sherman
and his campaign have served a variety of interests. Caudill and
Ashdown argue that these myths have been employed by groups as
disparate as those endorsing the Old South aristocracy and its
"Lost Cause," and by others who saw the March as evidence of the
superiority of industrialism in modern America over a retreating
agrarianism. Sherman's March in Myth and Memory looks at the
general's treatment in the press, among historians, on stage and
screen, and in literature, from the time of the March to the
present day. The authors show us the many ways in which Sherman has
been portrayed in the media and popular culture, and how his
devastating March has been stamped into our collective memory."
Wild Bill's ever-evolving legend. When it came to the Wild West,
the nineteenth-century press rarely let truth get in the way of a
good story. James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok's story was no
exception. Mythologized and sensationalized, Hickok was turned into
the deadliest gunfighter of all, a so-called moral killer, a
national phenomenon even while he was alive. Rather than attempt to
tease truth from fiction, coauthors Paul Ashdown and Edward Caudill
investigate the ways in which Hickok embodied the culture of
glamorized violence Americans embraced after the Civil War and
examine the process of how his story emerged, evolved, and turned
into a viral multimedia sensation full of the excitement, danger,
and romance of the West. Journalists, the coauthors demonstrate,
invented "Wild Bill" Hickok, glorifying him as a civilizer. They
inflated his body count and constructed his legend in the midst of
an emerging celebrity culture that grew up around penny newspapers.
His death by treachery, at a relatively young age, made the story
tragic, and dime-store novelists took over where the press left
off. Reimagined as entertainment, Hickok's legend continued to
enthrall Americans in literature, on radio, on television, and in
the movies, and it still draws tourists to notorious Deadwood,
South Dakota. American culture often embraces myths that later
become accepted as popular history. By investigating the allure and
power of Hickok's myth, Ashdown and Caudill explain how American
journalism and popular culture have shaped the way Civil War-era
figures are remembered and reveal how Americans have embraced
violence as entertainment.
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