Although much has been written about Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography, other writers of what Stephen Arch calls "self-biographies" in post-revolutionary America have received scant scholarly attention. This rich variety of texts dramatically shows the complex nature of 19th-century concepts of identity. Arguing that "autobiography" is a modern invention, Arch shows its emergence in the older, conservative self-biographies of Alexander Graydon, Benjamin Rush, and Ethan Allen and in the newer, more progressive, and even radical self-biographies of K. White, Elizabeth Fisher, Stephen Burroughs, and John Fitch. Describing the evolution of a concept as elastic as "the self" is not easy, but Arch offers a unique and imaginative study of the emergence of a specifically modern American identity.
- ISBN10 1584651148
- ISBN13 9781584651147
- Publish Date 30 July 2001 (first published 31 May 2001)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 26 March 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University Press of New England
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 288
- Language English