000			03600cam a2200397 i 4500
001			NDU01-005781153
003			InNd
005			20240304104408.0
007			ta
008			190819s2020 nyua b 001 0 eng
010			_a2019026000
020			_a9780525522294 _q(hardcover)
020			_a0525522298
020			_a9780525522317 _q(trade paperback)
020			_a052552231X
020			_z9780525522300 _q(ebook)
035			_a(OCoLC)1105149022 _z(OCoLC)1142629856
042			_apcc
043			_an-us---
050	0	0	_aPR2971 .U6 _bS55 2020
082	0	0	_a822.3/3 _223
082	0	4	_a973 _223
100	1		_aShapiro, James, _d1955- _eauthor.
245	1	0	_aShakespeare in a divided America : _bwhat his plays tell us about our past and future / _cJames Shapiro.
300			_axxx, 286 pages : _billustrations ; _c24 cm
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
505	0		_a1833 : Miscegenation -- 1845 : Manifest Destiny -- 1849 : Class Warfare -- 1865 : Assassination -- 1916 : Immigration -- 1948 : Marriage -- 1998 : Adultery and Same-Sex Love -- 2017 : Left / Right.
520			_a"From leading Shakespeare scholar James Shapiro, a timely and insightful examination of what the world's greatest dramatist can teach us about life in an America riven by conflict. The United States has always been divided, but Americans from all walks of life have also always shared a deep affinity for the plays William Shakespeare, even if their meaning has been fiercely contested. For well over two centuries now, Americans of all stripes--presidents and activists, writers and soldiers--have turned to his plays to prosecute the most intense and pivotal quarrels in the soul of the nation, a nation defined by its political and social pluralism. That prosecution dates back to pre-Revolutionary times, when Hamlet's famous soliloquy--"To be or not to be"--was appropriated both by defenders of British rule and those seeking to overthrow it.^Shapiro traces Shakespeare's formative and crucial role in our nation's history, from the otherwise progressive John Quincy Adams's sinister opinions on race expressed via (and only via) his views on Othello; to the politically-charged rhetoric that gripped Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth; to the resounding American triumph of Shakespeare in Love, produced by Harvey Weinstein's then fledgling company, Miramax, which exploded a debate about adultery at the time of President Clinton's Oval Office affair with Monica Lewinsky. But Shapiro also reports firsthand on Shakespeare's undeniable contemporary significance, after a production of Julius Caesar, which depicted the assassination of a President Trump-like Julius Caesar, was exploited calculatedly by Breitbart and Fox News to ignite outrage.^With style and unmatched expertise, Shapiro contends brilliantly that few writers or artists can shed as much light on the hot-button issues of American life--such as immigration, same-sex love, political violence, and class warfare--and that by better understanding the role of Shakespeare's plays in American history we might take steps towards mending our bitterly divided land"--
600	1	0	_aShakespeare, William, _d1564-1616 _xCriticism and interpretation _xHistory.
600	1	0	_aShakespeare, William, _d1564-1616 _xInfluence.
600	1	0	_aShakespeare, William, _d1564-1616 _xAppreciation _zUnited States.
650		0	_aLiterature and society _zUnited States _xHistory.
650		0	_aTheater and society _zUnited States _xHistory.
650		0	_aPolitics and literature _zUnited States _xHistory.
942			_2lcc _cBKC
999			_c16029 _d16021