American Protest Literature

by Trodd, Zoe

• ISBN13: 9780674027633
• ISBN10: 0674027639
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-04-30
• Publisher: Belknap Pr

Summary

"I like a little rebellion now and then"-so wrote Thomas Jefferson to Abigail Adams, enlisting in a tradition that throughout American history has led writers to rage and reason, prophesy and provoke. This is the first anthology to collect and examine an American literature that holds the nation to its highest ideals, castigating it when it falls short and pointing the way to a better collective future. American Protest Literature presents sources from eleven protest movements-political, social, and cultural-from the Revolution to abolition to gay rights to antiwar protest. Each section reprints documents from the original phase of the movement as well as evidence of its legacy in later times. Informative headnotes place the selections in historical context and draw connections with other writings within the anthology and beyond. Sources include a wide variety of genres-pamphlets, letters, speeches, sermons, legal documents, poems, short stories, photographs, posters-and a range of voices from prophetic to outraged to sorrowful, from U.S. Presidents to the disenfranchised. Together they provide an enlightening and inspiring survey of this most American form of literature.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xi
Introduction	p. xix
Declaring Independence: The American Revolution
The Literature
"A Political Litany" (1775)	p. 3
From Common Sense (1776)	p. 5
From "The Dominion of Providence over the Passions of Men" (1776)	p. 10
The Declaration of Independence (1776)	p. 15
From Letters from an American Farmer (1782)	p. 19
The Legacy
"The Working Men's Party Declaration of Independence" (1829)	p. 24
"Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments" (1848)	p. 27
From "Resistance to Civil Government" (1849)	p. 31
From "Provisional Constitution" (1858)	p. 36
From "Declaration of Interdependence by the Socialist Labor Party" (1895)	p. 38
Unvanishing the Indian: Native American Rights
The Literature
Speech to Governor William Harrison at Vincennes (1810)	p. 45
"An Indian's Looking-Glass for the White Man" (1833)	p. 48
"Indian Names" (1834)	p. 55
From From the Deep Woods to Civilization (1916)	p. 57
From Black Elk Speaks (1932)	p. 61
The Legacy
From Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (1970)	p. 65
"What Is the American Indian Movement?" (1973)	p. 68
"American Indians and Vietnamese" (1973)	p. 70
From Lakota Woman (1990)	p. 72
"The Exaggeration of Despair" (1996)	p. 75
Little Books That Started a Big War: Abolition and Antislavery
The Literature
From Appeal to the Coloured Citizens (1829)	p. 79
From Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)	p. 85
From "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" (1852)	p. 92
Prison Letters (1859)	p. 99
From Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861)	p. 106
The Legacy
The Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution (1863, 1865-1870)	p. 112
"Solidarity Forever" (1915)	p. 116
From "Everybody's Protest Novel" (1949)	p. 118
From The Defiant Ones (1958)	p. 122
From Disposable People: New Slavery in the Global Economy (1999)	p. 124
This Land is Herland: Women's Rights and Suffragism
The Literature
From "Shall Women Have the Right to Vote?" (1851)	p. 133
From "Women and Suffrage" (1867)	p. 139
From "Declaration and Protest of the Women of the United States" (1876)	p. 144
From "Solitude of Self" (1892)	p. 149
"The Yellow Wallpaper" (1892)	p. 155
The Legacy
"Frederick Douglass" (1908)	p. 170
From "Why Women Should Vote" (1910)	p. 175
From Herland (1915)	p. 181
Nineteenth Amendment and Equal Rights Amendments (1920, 1923, 1943)	p. 185
"Now We Can Begin" (1920)	p. 187
Capitalism's Discontents: Socialism and Industry
The Literature
From Life in the Iron Mills (1861)	p. 195
From Looking Backward, 2000-1887 (1888)	p. 204
From How the Other Half Lives (1890)	p. 211
From The Jungle (1906)	p. 216
"Sadie Pfeifer" and "Making Human Junk" (1908, 1915)	p. 222
The Legacy
From "The People's Party Platform" (1892)	p. 225
From Food and Drugs Act and Meat Inspection Act (1906)	p. 229
Statement to the Court (1918)	p. 232
"Farewell, Capitalist America!" (1929)	p. 237
From Nickel and Dimed (2001)	p. 240
Strange Fruit: Against Lynching
The Literature
From Southern Horrors (1892)	p. 247
"Jesus Christ in Texas" (1920)	p. 256
"The Lynching" (1920)	p. 264
From "Big Boy Leaves Home" (1936)	p. 266
"Strange Fruit" (1937, 1939)	p. 274
The Legacy
"Bill for Negro Rights and the Suppression of Lynching" (1934)	p. 276
"Federal Law Is Imperative" (1947)	p. 279
"Take a Stand against the Klan" (1980)	p. 281
From "AmeriKKKa 1998: The Lynching of James Byrd" (1998)	p. 286
"The Lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, 1930" (2000)	p. 289
Dust Tracks on the Road: The Great Depression
The Literature
"Migrant Mother" (1936)	p. 293
"Farmer and Sons" (1936)	p. 295
From The Grapes of Wrath (1939)	p. 297
Hale County, Alabama (1936)	p. 303
From Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941)	p. 306
The Legacy
"Tom Joad" (1940)	p. 316
From 12 Million Black Voices (1941)	p. 320
From The Sweet Flypaper of Life (1955)	p. 326
From The Other America (1962)	p. 328
"Poverty Is a Crime" (1972)	p. 332
The Dungeon Shook: Civil Rights and Black Liberation
The Literature
"Montgomery: Reflections of a Loving Alien" (1956)	p. 337
"My Dungeon Shook" (1962)	p. 342
From "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (1963)	p. 346
"Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C." (1963)	p. 354
From "The Ballot or the Bullet" (1964)	p. 356
The Legacy
"On Civil Rights" (1963)	p. 364
From "The American Promise" (1965)	p. 369
"Black Art" (1966)	p. 375
"Panther Power" (1989)	p. 378
"Ten Point Program" (2001)	p. 381
A Problem That Had No Name: Second-Wave Feminism
The Literature
"I Stand Here Ironing" (1956)	p. 387
From The Feminine Mystique (1963)	p. 394
"Statement of Purpose" (1966)	p. 400
"Women's Liberation Has a Different Meaning for Blacks" (1970)	p. 406
"For the Equal Rights Amendment" (1970)	p. 411
The Legacy
Letter to Betty Friedan (1963)	p. 416
"Poetry Is Not a Luxury" (1977)	p. 418
"The Female and the Silence of a Man" (1989)	p. 422
From The Morning After (1993)	p. 424
"Women Don't Riot" (1998)	p. 430
The Word Is Out: Gay Liberation
The Literature
From "Howl" (1956)	p. 435
Stonewall Documents (1969-1970)	p. 438
From "Refugees from Amerika: A Gay Manifesto" (1969)	p. 444
"The Women's Liberation and Gay Liberation Movements" (1970)	p. 451
From Street Theater (1982)	p. 454
The Legacy
"Read My Lips" (1988); Still/Here (1994)	p. 458
From Angels in America (1990, 1991)	p. 460
"Dyke Manifesto" (1993)	p. 467
From Stone Butch Blues (1993)	p. 471
Goodridge v. Department of Public Health (2003)	p. 476
From Saigon to Baghdad: The Vietnam War and Beyond
The Literature
"I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die-Rag" (1965)	p. 481
"Advent 1966" (1966)	p. 484
From Why Are We in Vietnam? (1967)	p. 486
"Saigon" (1968); "Napalm" (1972)	p. 489
From Dispatches (1967-1969, 1977)	p. 491
The Legacy
"April 30, 1975" (1975)	p. 496
From "How to Tell a True War Story" (1987)	p. 498
Poets against the War	p. 502
"Speak Out" (2003)	p. 503
"Poem of War" (2003)	p. 504
"Poem of Disconnected Parts" (2005)	p. 505
"Who Would Jesus Torture?" (2004)	p. 507
From Born on the Fourth of July (1976, 2005)	p. 510
Afterword	p. 515
Sources	p. 519
Acknowledgments	p. 529
Index	p. 531
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