Description
Product Description
One of the New York Times Ten Best Books of the Year • A National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist • A New York Times Notable Book A timely exploration of what Shakespeare’s plays reveal about our divided land.“In this sprightly and enthralling book . . . Shapiro amply demonstrates [that] for Americans the politics of Shakespeare are not confined to the public realm, but have enormous relevance in the sphere of private life.” —The Guardian (London)
The plays of William Shakespeare are rare common ground in the United States. For well over two centuries, Americans of all stripes—presidents and activists, soldiers and writers, conservatives and liberals alike—have turned to Shakespeare’s works to explore the nation’s fault lines. In a narrative arching from Revolutionary times to the present day, leading scholar James Shapiro traces the unparalleled role of Shakespeare’s four-hundred-year-old tragedies and comedies in illuminating the many concerns on which American identity has turned.
From Abraham Lincoln’s and his assassin, John Wilkes Booth’s, competing Shakespeare obsessions to the 2017 controversy over the staging of
Julius Caesar in Central Park, in which a Trump-like leader is assassinated,
Shakespeare in a Divided America reveals how no writer has been more embraced, more weaponized, or has shed more light on the hot-button issues in our history.
Review
“[A] terrific new book . . . If Jill Lepore and the late Tony Judt had collaborated, this taut, swift and insightful tract might have been the offspring . . . Among all the fine words currently being spilled examining the American mess, James Shapiro has outshone many of our best political pundits with this superb contribution to the discourse. He upped the wattage simply by bouncing his spotlight off a playwright 400 years dead who yet again turns out to be, somehow, us.”—
David Ives,
New York Times Book Review
“Shapiro treats us to one deep-dive vignette after another, most of which center on Shakespearean nuggets from America’s past that have vanished from view even among seasoned fans of this country’s neglected cultural curios.”
—Bookforum
"Elegant, engaging, and enlightening,
Shakespeare in a Divided America is a not-at-all guilty pleasure in this winter of our discontent." —
Psychology Today
"Entertaining and accessible . . .Shapiro makes the case that arguments about the Bard's plays have long reflected our conflicted beliefs as a nation about hot-button issues like immigration, adultery, homosexuality and interracial love." —
Associated Press
"Shapiro presents eight cases of Shakespeare's impact in a perpetually culture-clashing U.S. ...Filling out each chapter with vivid context, Shapiro could hardly be more engaging." —
Booklist
“Impeccably researched, [
Shakespeare in a Divided America] focuses on how key figures in American history have experienced Shakespeare . . . A thought-provoking, captivating lesson in how literature and history intermingle."
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Kirkus Reviews
"Fascinating [...] Chock-full of approachable and engaging critical analyses, this work will pique the curiosity of both Shakespeareans and anyone interested in American culture."
—Library Journal
"Shapiro’s wit and well-sourced anecdotes enliven his incisive analysis of more than a century’s worth of American history. Written with broad appeal and expert insight, this sparkling account deserves to be widely read." —
Publishers Weekly, starred review
“In two landmark books, James Shapiro explored the depth of Shakespeare’s engagement in the contested issues of his own time. Now, in the brilliantly conceived
Shakespeare in a Divided America, Shapiro deftly demonstrates the playwright’s intimate presence in the culture and politics of the New World. From the racist anxieties focused on
Othello in the 1830s to the bitter left-right divide focused on
Julius Caesar in our own time, Shakespeare’s works have been uncannily central to our national imag