The unvarnished truth

Description:

"The practice of selling one's tale of woe to make a buck has long been a part of American culture. The Unvarnished Truth: Personal Narratives in Nineteenth-Century America is a powerful cultural history of how ordinary Americans crafted and sold their stories of hardship and calamity during the nineteenth century. Ann Fabian examines the tales of beggars, convicts, ex-slaves, prisoners of the Confederacy, and others to explore cultural authority, truth-telling, and the nature of print media as the country was shifting to a market economy. This book describes the controversies surrounding these little-read tales and returns them to the social worlds where they were produced."--BOOK JACKET.

subjects: Poor,  Autobiography,  United States,  19th century,  Biography,  History,  Popular literature,  United states, biography,  United states, social conditions,  American literature, history and criticism, 19th century,  BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY,  Historical,  Reference,  LITERARY CRITICISM,  American,  General,  Herinneringen,  Populaire literatuur

Places: United States

Times: 19th century