Urban Rehearsals and Novel Plots in the Early American City by Betsy Klimasmith (review)

Abstract

Even as I offer a potentially unfair critique, wanting academics to write in a way they chose not to write, I do so in the belief that we must give the subject the verbal space it needs to further evolve. Together, these essays open an important avenue for Early American Studies. With a consistency and breadth seldom found in an edited collection, this volume offers a convincing case for how and what we study. The essays address key moral concerns, from decolonization to immigration to racial reconciliation, and provide guideposts for how we may explore a new body of texts. The geographic and cultural diversity illustrate, as well, that we no longer have the need to fall back on stock regions, themes, or canonical formations. Rex and Watson have opened an invitation for anyone who teaches courses in early American literature to head out to their closest landmark, apply the same tools we use for traditional analysis, and engage our students in this continued renegotiation of a still-unwritten past. In a word, this book is a trip.