The Contrast

by Kierner, Cynthia A.

• ISBN13: 9780814747933
• ISBN10: 0814747930
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780814783436
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-04-01
• Publisher: NYU Press
• More Book Details

Summary

This powerful and lively package of primary materials and historical context will demonstrate how historical 'forces' play themselves out on the ground. Kierner's collection offers a fresh lens on a new world struggling into being and will inspire teachers and students of all ages alike.--Catherine Allgor, author of A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American NationThe Contrast, which premiered at New York City's John Street Theater in 1787, was the first American play performed in public by a professional theater company. The play, written by New England-born, Harvard-educated, Royall Tyler was timely, funny, and extremely popular. When the play appeared in print in 1790, George Washington himself appeared at the head of its list of hundreds of subscribers.Reprinted here with annotated footnotes by historian Cynthia A. Kierner, Tyler's play explores the debate over manners, morals, and cultural authority in the decades following American Revolution. Did the American colonists' rejection of monarchy in 1776 mean they should abolish all European social traditions and hierarchies? What sorts of etiquette, amusements, and fashions were appropriate and beneficial? Most important, to be a nation, did Americans need to distinguish themselves from Europeans -- and, if so, how?Tyler was not the only American pondering these questions, and Kierner situates the play in its broader historical and cultural contexts. An extensive introduction provides readers with a background on life and politics in the United States in 1787, when Americans were in the midst of nation-building. The book also features a section with selections from contemporary letters, essays, novels, conduct books, and public documents, which debate issues of the era.

Author Biography

Cynthia A. Kierner is Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. vii
Preface	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
The Contrast	p. 35
Primary Documents	p. 101
Arts and Literature in Post-Revolutionary America	p. 101
The Former, Present, and Future Prospects of America (1786)	p. 101
The Dabblers (1788)	p. 102
Discussion Questions	p. 103
Virtues and Vices of the Theater	p. 104
Effects of the Stage on the Manners of a People (1792)	p. 104
Anti-Theater Petition (1793)	p. 106
Discussion Questions	p. 108
Lord Chesterfield and His Critics	p. 109
The Art of Pleasing Men and Women (1747)	p. 109
Mercy Otis Warren on Chesterfield's Letters (1779)	p. 110
Discussion Questions	p. 113
The Follies of Fashion	p. 114
For the Females (1787)	p. 114
Fantastical, Preposterous Fashions [of] Gentlemen (1787)	p. 116
Discussion Questions	p. 118
The Ideal Wife	p. 118
On Matrimonial Obedience (1792)	p. 119
Proper Conduct of the Wife Towards Her Husband (1804)	p. 120
Discussion Questions	p. 122
The Ideal Husband	p. 123
Panegyric on the Marriage State (1786)	p. 123
How to Prolong the Happiness of the Marriage Union (1787)	p. 124
Discussion Questions	p. 125
Educating American Youth	p. 126
Plan for the Establishment of Public Schools (1786)	p. 126
The Progress of a Countryman (1787)	p. 129
Discussion Questions	p. 130
The Meaning of Equality	p. 131
The Will of the People (1792)	p. 131
The Natural Aristocracy (1813)	p. 135
Discussion Questions	p. 137
Suggested Reading	p. 139
Index	p. 143
About the Author	p. 147
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