{"product_id":"home-elsewhere-robert-b-stepto-9780674050969","title":"Home Elsewhere: Reading African American Classics in the Age of Obama","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn this series of interlocking essays, which had their start as lectures inspired by the presidency of Barack Obama, Robert Burns Stepto sets canonical works of African American literature in conversation with Obama's \u003ci\u003eDreams from My Father\u003c\/i\u003e. The elegant readings that result shed surprising light on unexamined angles of works ranging from Frederick Douglass's \u003ci\u003eNarrative\u003c\/i\u003e to W. E. B. Du Bois's \u003ci\u003eSouls of Black Folk\u003c\/i\u003e to Toni Morrison's \u003ci\u003eSong of Solomon\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eStepto draws our attention to the concerns that recur in the books he takes up: how protagonists raise themselves, often without one or both parents; how black boys invent black manhood, often with no models before them; how protagonists seek and find a home elsewhere; and how they create personalities that can deal with the pain of abandonment. These are age-old themes in African American literature that, Stepto shows, gain a special poignancy and importance because our president has lived through these situations and circumstances and has written about them in a way that refreshes our understanding of the whole of African American literature. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eStepto amplifies these themes in four additional essays, which investigate Douglass's correspondence with Harriet Beecher Stowe; Willard Savoy's novel \u003ci\u003eAlien Land\u003c\/i\u003e and its interracial protagonist; the writer's understanding of the reader in African American literature; and Stepto's account of his own schoolhouse lessons, with their echoes of Douglass' and Obama's experiences.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Robert B. Stepto\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0674050967\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780674050969\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Harvard University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/15\/2010\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 192\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.75lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.33h x 5.82w x 0.74d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 06\/01\/2010 pg. 87\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 07\/05\/2010\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/01\/2011","brand":"Robert B. Stepto","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":47072015712511,"sku":"9780674050969","price":42.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_8a0621ac-b12f-423e-a011-a5cd22566f12.jpg?v=1753415565","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/home-elsewhere-robert-b-stepto-9780674050969","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}