"Character in the American Experience: An Unruly People tells the story of the American character, from its earliest beginnings to the present day. Bruce P. Frohnen and Ted V. McAllister detail how great events and daily life have both shaped and been shaped by a people committed to order and independence, community and conflict, as well as the triumphs and tragedies American unruliness produced"--

This book tells the story of the American character, from its earliest beginnings to the present day. Bruce P. Frohnen and Ted V. McAllister detail how great events and daily life have both shaped and been shaped by a people committed to order and independence.

Character in the American Experience: An Unruly People tells the story of the American character, from its earliest beginnings to the present day. Bruce P. Frohnen and Ted V. McAllister detail how great events and daily life have both shaped and been shaped by a people committed to order and independence, community and conflict, as well as the triumphs and tragedies American unruliness produced.

Professor Parkes has woven together economic history and analysis of American literature, generalized summaries of trends and detailed discussions of particularly significant spokesmen, into a pattern that is at the same time clear and complex. [His book] accomplishes the difficult feat of being both intelligible to the layman and rewarding for the professional.

Compared to the early decades of the 20th century, when scholarly writing on African Americans was limited to a few titles on slavery, Reconstruction, and African American migration, the last thirty years have witnessed an explosion of works on the African American experience. With the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the 1960s came an increasing demand for the study and teaching of African American history followed by the publication of increasing numbers of titles on African American life and history. This volume provides a comprehensive bibliographical and analytical guide to this growing body of literature as well as an analysis of how the study of African Americans has changed.

An immensely popular genre, crime fiction has only in recent years been engaged significantly by African American authors. Historically, the racist stereotypes often central to crime fiction and the socially conservative nature of the genre presented problems for writing the black experience, and the tropes of justice and restoration of social order have not resonated with authors who saw social justice as a work in progress. Some African American authors did take up the challenge. Pauline Hopkins, Rudolph Fisher and Chester Himes led the way in the first half of the 20th century, followed by Ishmael Reed's "anti-detective" novels in the 1970s. Since the 1990s, Walter Mosley, Colson Whitehead and Stephen L. Carter have written detective fiction focusing on questions of constitutional law, civil rights, biological and medical issues, education, popular culture, the criminal justice system and matters of social justice. From Hopkins's Hagar's Daughter (published in 1901), to Hime's hardboiled "Harlem Detective" series, to Carter's patrician world of the black bourgeoisie, these authors provide a means of examining literary and social constructions of the African-American experience. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.