{"product_id":"shakespeare-in-a-divided-america-what-his-plays-tell-us-about-our-past-and-future-9780525522317","title":"Shakespeare in a Divided America: What His Plays Tell Us about Our Past and Future","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne of the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003eTen Best Books of the Year \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e Notable Book \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom leading scholar James Shapiro, a timely exploration of what Shakespeare's plays reveal about our divided land, from Revolutionary times to the present day \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe plays of William Shakespeare are rare common ground in the United States. They are read at school by almost every student, staged in theaters across the land, and long valued by conservatives and liberals alike. For well over two centuries, Americans of all stripes--presidents and activists, writers and soldiers--have turned to Shakespeare's works to explore the nation's fault lines, including such issues as manifest destiny, race, gender, immigration, and free speech. In a narrative arching across the centuries, from Revolutionary times to the present day, leading scholar James Shapiro traces the unparalleled role of Shakespeare's four-hundred-year-old tragedies and comedies in illuminating the many concerns on which American identity has turned. Reflecting on how Shakespeare has been invoked--and at times weaponized--at pivotal moments in our past, Shapiro takes us from President John Quincy Adams's disgust with Desdemona's interracial marriage to Othello, to Abraham Lincoln's and his assassin John Wilkes Booth's competing obsessions with the plays, up through the fraught debates over marriage and same-sex love at the heart of the celebrated adaptations \u003ci\u003eKiss Me, Kate\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eShakespeare in Love.\u003c\/i\u003e His narrative culminates in the 2017 controversy over the staging of \u003ci\u003eJulius Caesar\u003c\/i\u003e in Central Park, in which a Trump-like leader is assassinated. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Deeply researched, and timely, \u003ci\u003eShakespeare in a Divided America\u003c\/i\u003e reveals how no writer has been more closely embraced by Americans, or has shed more light on the hot-button issues in our history. Indeed, it is by better understanding Shakespeare's role in American life, Shapiro argues, that we might begin to mend our bitterly divided land.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Penguin Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/09\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780525522317\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 320\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.68lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.44h x 5.50w x 0.63d","brand":"James Shapiro","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":38472157397173,"sku":"9780525522317","price":16.15,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_1c5bc242-3d17-46d5-8cb8-ed95a85e9b72.jpg?v=1612933978","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/shakespeare-in-a-divided-america-what-his-plays-tell-us-about-our-past-and-future-9780525522317","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}