|
|
|
books
| book details |
The National Joker: Abraham Lincoln and the Politics of Satire
By (author) Todd Nathan Thompson
|
| on special |
normal price: R 1 260.95
Price: R 1 197.95
|
| book description |
Abraham Lincoln’s love of jokes— hearÂing them, telling them, drawing morals from them—prompted critics to dub LinÂcoln “the National Joker.†Interestingly, the political cartoons and print satires that mocked Lincoln often trafficked in precisely the same images and terms Lincoln humorously used to characÂterize himself. In this intriguing study, Todd Nathan Thompson considers the politically productive tension between Lincoln’s use of satire and satiric treatÂments of him in political cartoons, humour periodicals, joke books, and campaign literature. Thompson traces Lincoln’s comic sources and explains how, in reapplying others’ jokes and stories to political circumstances, he transformed humour into satire. Time and time again, Thompson shows, LinÂcoln engaged in self-mockery, turning negative assumptions or depictions of him—as ugly, cowardly, jocular, inexperienced—into positive traits that identified him as an everyman while attacking his opponents’ claims to greatness, heroism, and experience as aristocratic or demagogic. By fashionÂing a folksy, fallible persona, Thompson shows, Lincoln was able to use satire as a weapon without being severely wounded by it. Thompson also considers how LinÂcoln used political cartoons and other media to craft the particular Lincoln image of the “self-made man,†underÂscores exceptions to Lincoln’s ability to mitigate negative depictions, and closely examines political cartoons from both the 1860 and 1864 elections. Throughout, Thompson’s deft analysis preserves Lincoln’s popular humour. This enjoyable volume will appeal to scholÂars of history, politics, literature, and cultural studies as well as to those of American humour and satire.
| product details |
Normally shipped |
Publisher | Southern Illinois University Press
Published date | 8 Jul 2015
Language |
Format | Hardback
Pages | 200
Dimensions | 228 x 149 x 17mm (L x W x H)
Weight | 456g
ISBN | 978-0-8093-3422-3
Readership Age |
BISAC | history / united states / 19th century
| other options |
|
|
|
To view the items in your trolley please sign in.
| sign in |
|
|
|
| specials |
|
An epic love story with the pulse of a thriller that asks: what would you risk for a second chance at first love?
|
|
Mason Coile
Paperback / softback
224 pages
was: R 520.95
now: R 468.95
|
A terrifying locked-room mystery set in a remote outpost on Mars.
|
|
|
|
|
|
