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A Is for American: Letters and Other C..., Lepore, Jill
US $7.69
ApproximatelyS$ 9.97
Condition:
Good
A book that has been read but is in good condition. Very minimal damage to the cover including scuff marks, but no holes or tears. The dust jacket for hard covers may not be included. Binding has minimal wear. The majority of pages are undamaged with minimal creasing or tearing, minimal pencil underlining of text, no highlighting of text, no writing in margins. No missing pages.
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Shipping:
Free USPS Media MailTM.
Located in: Montgomery Illinois, United States
Delivery:
Estimated between Thu, 16 Oct and Mon, 20 Oct
Returns:
30 days return. Seller pays for return shipping.
Coverage:
Read item description or contact seller for details. See all detailsSee all details on coverage
(Not eligible for eBay purchase protection programmes)
Seller assumes all responsibility for this listing.
eBay item number:316964752539
Item specifics
- Condition
- ISBN
- 037540449X
- EAN
- 9780375404498
- Publication Name
- N/A
- Type
- Hardback
- Release Title
- A Is for American: Letters and Other Characters in the Newly U...
- Artist
- Lepore, Jill
- Brand
- N/A
- Colour
- N/A
About this product
Product Identifiers
Publisher
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
ISBN-10
037540449X
ISBN-13
9780375404498
eBay Product ID (ePID)
22038267025
Product Key Features
Book Title
A Is for American : Letters and Other Characters in the Newly United States
Number of Pages
256 Pages
Language
English
Topic
United States / Revolutionary Period (1775-1800), Linguistics / Historical & Comparative, United States / General, Linguistics / General
Publication Year
2002
Illustrator
Yes
Genre
Language Arts & Disciplines, History
Format
Hardcover
Dimensions
Item Height
1 in
Item Weight
19.9 Oz
Item Length
9.5 in
Item Width
6.5 in
Additional Product Features
Intended Audience
Trade
LCCN
2001-038057
Dewey Edition
21
Reviews
"On every single page of this remarkable book I discovered nuggets of fascination and delight. I read it at one sitting, mesmerised by the scholarship, the erudition and the elegant simplicity of this story of seven consummately noble American lives, each one of them, as Jill Lepore reveals, a pilgrimage in the grand search for a nation-creating linguistic ideal." -- Simon Winchester, author ofThe Professor and the Madman, "On every single page of this remarkable book I discovered nuggets of fascination and delight. I read it at one sitting, mesmerised by the scholarship, the erudition and the elegant simplicity of this story of seven consummately noble American lives, each one of them, as Jill Lepore reveals, a pilgrimage in the grand search for a nation-creating linguistic ideal." -- Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman
Dewey Decimal
306.44/973/09033
Synopsis
What ties Americans to one another? Not race, religion, or ethnicity. At the nation's founding, some commentators wondered whether adopting a common tongue might help bind the newly United States together. "A national language is a national tie," Noah Webster argued in 1786, "and what country wants it more than America?" In the century following the drafting of the Constitution, Americans from Noah Webster to Samuel F. B. Morse tried to use letters and other characters-alphabets, syllabaries, signs, and codes-to strengthen the new American nation, to string it together with chains of letters and cables of wire. Webster published a spelling book, hoping to teach Americans to speak and spell alike; Morse devised a dot-and-dash alphabet to link the country by telegraph. Meanwhile, other Americans used these same tools to connect the new republic to the larger world. Caribbean-born William Thornton devised a "universal alphabet," dreaming of making "the world seem more nearly allied." Hartford minister Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet preached that the sign language of the deaf was a divinely inspired "natural language" that could help usher in the new millennium. And elocution professor Alexander Graham Bell was inspired by his father's universal alphabet, known as Visible Speech, to invent the telephone. Still other Americans used letters and other characters to distance themselves from the United States. Cherokee silversmith Sequoyah invented an eighty-five-character syllabary for the Cherokee language to promote his people's independence; Abd al-Rahman Ibrahima, an aging slave in Natchez, Mississippi, demonstrated his Arabic literacy to gain both his freedom and his passage back to Africa. In A Is for American, Jill Lepore tells the tales of these seven unusual characters-Webster, Thornton, Sequoyah, Gallaudet, Abd al-Rahman, Morse, and Bell-and their efforts to use language to define national character and shape national boundaries. Taken together, these superbly told stories, ranging from the Revolution to Reconstruction, reveal the daunting challenges faced by a new nation in unifying its diverse people.
LC Classification Number
PE2809.L46 2002
Item description from the seller
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- Automatische Bewertung von eBay- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthBestellung pünktlich und problemlos geliefert
- 4***d (552)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseNice book, good condition, shipped quickly, thank you!!
- 4***d (552)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseNice books, very good condition, shipped quickly, thank you!!
- r***7 (3745)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseas described
Seller feedback (294,670)
This item (1)
All items (294,670)
- Automatische Bewertung von eBay- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthBestellung pünktlich und problemlos geliefert
- 4***d (552)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseNice book, good condition, shipped quickly, thank you!!
- 4***d (552)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseNice books, very good condition, shipped quickly, thank you!!
- r***7 (3745)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseas described