Shakespeare is American, Actually
America and Shakespeare are an unlikely pair, considering how much of the American identity formed out of the rejection of Britishness. But in spite of this, an incredible range of Americans — from Thomas Jefferson to P.T. Barnum to Mark Twain — helped transform Shakespeare from a keystone of English culture to an American icon.
This is by far the longest (and most ambitious) video I’ve made yet, and has been nearly a year in the making. I hope you all enjoy!
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By far, the most helpful resources I found while researching are the following books and article. Research from these make up a bulk of the script. If you’re curious about this topic, I highly encourage you to give them a read! Lots in there that I didn’t cover.
Shakespeare and the American Popular Stage
Frances Teague
https://archive.org/details/shakespea...
Shakespeare and the American Nation
https://archive.org/details/shakespea...
Kim Sturgess
West side story: how Shakespeare stormed America's frontier
Andrew Dickson
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/201...
Other Sources (with links where available):
Struggles and Triumphs, or, The Recollections of P.T. Barnum
P.T. Barnum
https://archive.org/details/22589411....
Proposed Shakespeare Memorial
Mark Twain
New York Times (April 29, 1875), p. 6
Following the Equator
Mark Twain
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2895/...
The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare
Edited by Joseph Hopkinson
https://archive.org/details/bim_eight...
Democracy in America, Vol. 2
Alexis de Tocqueville
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/...
The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded
Delia Bacon
https://archive.org/details/philosoph...
Representative Men: Shakespeare; or, the Poet
Ralph Waldo Emerson
https://emersoncentral.com/texts/repr...
Dissertations on the English Language
Noah Webster
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/45738...
The Authorship of Shakespeare
Nathaniel Holmes
https://archive.org/details/authorshi...
The Great Cryptogram
Ignatius L. Donnelly
https://archive.org/details/greatcryp...
Words and Their Uses, Past and Present
Richard Grant White
https://archive.org/details/wordsthei...
Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Trumbull
https://founders.archives.gov/documen...
The Significance of the Shakespeare Memorial
William Adams Slade
David Crystal - Original practices in Shakespeare
Hay Levels
• Video
A Northern US Accent from the 18th to the 21st Centuries
Simon Roper
• A Northern US Accent from the 18th to the ...
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Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
5:28 Shakespeare in the Colonies
10:15 Shakespeare in the New Republic
13:38 American Claims to Shakespeare
24:19 The Authorship Question
28:04 Epilogue