{"product_id":"the-tar-baby-bryan-wagner-9780691172637","title":"The Tar Baby: A Global History","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA richly nuanced cultural history of an enigmatic and controversial folktale\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePerhaps the best-known version of the tar baby story was published in 1880 by Joel Chandler Harris in \u003ci\u003eUncle Remus: His Songs and His Sayings\u003c\/i\u003e, and popularized in \u003ci\u003eSong of the South\u003c\/i\u003e, the 1946 Disney movie. Other versions of the story, however, have surfaced in many other places throughout the world, including Nigeria, Brazil, Corsica, Jamaica, India, and the Philippines. \u003ci\u003eThe Tar Baby\u003c\/i\u003e offers a fresh analysis of this deceptively simple story about a fox, a rabbit, and a doll made of tar and turpentine, tracing its history and its connections to slavery, colonialism, and global trade. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBryan Wagner explores how the tar baby story, thought to have originated in Africa, came to exist in hundreds of forms on five continents. Examining its variation, reception, and dispersal over time, he argues that the story is best understood not merely as a folktale but as a collective work in political philosophy. Circulating at the same time and in the same places as new ideas about property and politics developed in colonial law and political economy, the tar baby comes to embody an understanding of the interlocking processes by which custom was criminalized, slaves were captured, and labor was bought and sold. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCompellingly argued and ambitious in scope, the book concludes with twelve versions of the story transcribed from various cultures in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Bryan Wagner\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0691172633\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780691172637\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Princeton University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/25\/2017\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 280\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.00lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.60h x 5.60w x 1.00d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 05\/01\/2017 pg. 75","brand":"Bryan Wagner","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48065040744703,"sku":"9780691172637","price":42.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_228c050a-2c3f-4234-bfbc-ac9903de7c76.jpg?v=1768672746","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-tar-baby-bryan-wagner-9780691172637","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}