Literature in America During Industrialization, Urbanization, & Immigration
Emma Lazarus (1886) Statue of Liberty erected in New York Harbor Authored the words on the base of the Statue of Liberty “Give me your tired, your poor/ Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,/ The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”
Charles Darwin “On the Origin of Species” (1859) Humans evolved from lower forms of life Theory of Evolution casts doubt on literal interpretation of the Bible Created debates and controversies in churches & colleges
Other works of Literature Books = major source of education & enjoyment Bestsellers: “David Copperfield” & “Ivanhoe” Public libraries –Boston & New York Library of Congress (1897) Andrew Carnegie donated $ for public libraries Magazines also interested the public “Harper’s” “Atlantic Monthly” “Scribner’s Monthly”
William James One of America’s most brilliant intellectuals “Principles of Psychology” –est. Modern discipline of behavioral psychology “The Will to Believe” & “Varieties of Religious Experience” –Explored philosophy and psychology of religion “Pragmatism” –Description of Am.’s greatest contribution to the history of philosophy
Joseph Pulitzer & William R. Hearst Pulitzer “New York World” Use of the “yellow kid” & colored comic supplements –Yellow journalism Hearst Built a powerful chain of newspapers –“San Francisco Examiner” (1887) Drastic means in order to increase circulation Scandal & rumors Their flair for the scandalous was offset when the Associated Press emerged in the 1840s.
Edwin L. Godkin & Henry George (1865) New York “Nation” –Read by liberals and high intellectuals Crusaded for civil- service reform, honesty in gov’t., a moderate tariff rich in idealism and in human kindness “Progress and Poverty” the pressure of growing population on a fixed supply of land unjustifiably increased property values giving unearned profits on land owners
Edward Bellamy (1888) socialist novel –“Looking Backward” Looks back from 2000 Find the soc. and eco. injustices of 1987 have disappeared under an idyllic gov’t (nationalized big business to serve the public interest)
Post War Writing Harlan F. Halsey –King of Dime novels –About 650 novels/day Lewis Wallace –(1880) “Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ” –The “UTC” of Anti- Darwinists Horatio Alger a.k.a. “Holy Horatio” –More than 100 vols. of juvenile fiction –Formula: virtue, honesty, & industry are rewarded by success, wealth, & honor Survival of the purest Walt Whitman –Brought out revision of “Leaves of Grass” –Assassination of Lincoln: “O Captain! My Captain!” & “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” Emily Dickinson –(1886) Died – her poems discovered and published –Wrote over a thousand short lyrics Post-Civil War Americans devoured millions of “dime novels,” usually depicting the wilds of the West.