Introduction: Thinking with Tricks 1. The Death and Rebirth of the Automaton Chess-Player 2. The Feejee Mermaid and the Market Revolution 3. Describing the Nondescript 4. Modern Magic 5. Queer Art Illusions Epilogue: Barnum's Ghosts Notes Index
The Arts of Deception is a delight. James Cook's study combines fascinating stories and characters, thorough scholarship, and profound insights into nineteenth-century popular culture. -- John F. Kasson author of Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect Man: The White Male Body and the Challenge of Modernity in America An eloquent, wide-ranging, and above all honest cultural study of the American hunger for fraud. -- Eric Lott, author of Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class The Arts of Deception is a gracefully written and intriguing book. James Cook's well-told stories reveal a new and exciting way of looking at the culture of this dynamically expanding society. Anyone interested in the history of nineteenth-century America will read this book with pleasure and considerable profit. -- Shane White co-author of Stylin': African-American Expressive Culture from Its Beginnings to the Zoot Suit James Cook's The Arts of Deception is an exceptionally fine achievement in cultural history, characterized throughout by artful use of narrative detail and sophisticated, supple interpretation. It is a delight to read and ponder, full of fascinating stories and fresh insights into American market society--one of the most illuminating accounts I have ever seen of the confidence games at the core of our culture. -- Jackson Lears author of Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America
James W. Cook is Assistant Professor of History and American Culture at the University of Michigan.
The Arts of Deception is a delight. James Cook's study combines
fascinating stories and characters, thorough scholarship, and
profound insights into nineteenth-century popular culture.
*John F. Kasson author of Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect Man:
The White Male Body and the Challenge of Modernity in
America*
An eloquent, wide-ranging, and above all honest cultural study of
the American hunger for fraud.
*Eric Lott, author of Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and
the American Working Class*
The Arts of Deception is a gracefully written and intriguing book.
James Cook's well-told stories reveal a new and exciting way of
looking at the culture of this dynamically expanding society.
Anyone interested in the history of nineteenth-century America will
read this book with pleasure and considerable profit.
*Shane White co-author of Stylin': African-American Expressive
Culture from Its Beginnings to the Zoot Suit*
James Cook's The Arts of Deception is an exceptionally fine
achievement in cultural history, characterized throughout by artful
use of narrative detail and sophisticated, supple interpretation.
It is a delight to read and ponder, full of fascinating stories and
fresh insights into American market society--one of the most
illuminating accounts I have ever seen of the confidence games at
the core of our culture.
*Jackson Lears author of Fables of Abundance: A Cultural History
of Advertising in America*
[Cook] is an imaginative cultural historian who excels at teasing
complex significance from apparently straightforward artifacts,
practices, and events...[He] provides fresh insight into the impact
of commerce on consciousness. The Arts of Deception is a subtle and
illuminating work of cultural history.
*New Republic*
Cook explores the 19th-century Americans' fascination with fraud
and deception as entertainment, and suggests that the popularity of
what P. T. Barnum referred to as "humbugs" is intimately related to
the birth of popular and mass culture in the 19th century and to
other important features of a 19th-century, middle-class,
market-driven society. Cook considers a wide and eclectic range of
specific "curiosities"...This is a fun, intelligent, sophisticated,
imaginative book.
*Choice*
Although readers may very well wonder whether there is anything
more to be said about P. T. Barnum and 'humbuggery' in
nineteenth-century America, this superb book provides a resounding
affirmation. The research is impressive, the presentation is
engaging and flows smoothly...[A] compelling book.
*American Studies*
James W. Cook's book on 'artful deceptions' in nineteenth-century
American popular culture is not merely fascinating, fluently
written, and engaging to read. It sheds light on a number of
different subjects and helps us to appreciate the thoroughly
interconnected nature of cultural phenomena in what he calls, quite
appropriately, the 'age of Barnum.' Indeed, it is a stellar example
of cultural history, providing the reader with both a vivid picture
of the specific social milieu that encouraged this new mode of
exhibition and an understanding of the more amorphous intellectual
climate that influenced exhibitors and audiences alike. Making
shrewd use of the available evidence, Cook has written a book
filled with compelling stories and anecdotal details. Yet what
stands out in the end is the rigor and incisiveness of his
analysis--the provocative conclusions he derives from his vignettes
and the remarkable way that he is able to make us see their larger
significance...The Arts of Deception is an important work in the
new historiography of popular culture.
*Journal of Social History*
The Arts of Deception is a delight. James Cook's study
combines fascinating stories and characters, thorough scholarship,
and profound insights into nineteenth-century popular culture. --
John F. Kasson author of Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect Man:
The White Male Body and the Challenge of Modernity in
America
An eloquent, wide-ranging, and above all honest cultural study of
the American hunger for fraud. -- Eric Lott, author of Love and
Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class
The Arts of Deception is a gracefully written and intriguing
book. James Cook's well-told stories reveal a new and exciting way
of looking at the culture of this dynamically expanding society.
Anyone interested in the history of nineteenth-century America will
read this book with pleasure and considerable profit. -- Shane
White co-author of Stylin': African-American Expressive Culture
from Its Beginnings to the Zoot Suit
James Cook's The Arts of Deception is an exceptionally fine
achievement in cultural history, characterized throughout by artful
use of narrative detail and sophisticated, supple interpretation.
It is a delight to read and ponder, full of fascinating stories and
fresh insights into American market society--one of the most
illuminating accounts I have ever seen of the confidence games at
the core of our culture. -- Jackson Lears author of Fables of
Abundance: A Cultural History of Advertising in America
[Cook] is an imaginative cultural historian who excels at teasing
complex significance from apparently straightforward artifacts,
practices, and events...[He] provides fresh insight into the impact
of commerce on consciousness. The Arts of Deception is a
subtle and illuminating work of cultural history. -- Jackson Lears
* New Republic *
Cook explores the 19th-century Americans' fascination with fraud
and deception as entertainment, and suggests that the popularity of
what P. T. Barnum referred to as "humbugs" is intimately related to
the birth of popular and mass culture in the 19th century and to
other important features of a 19th-century, middle-class,
market-driven society. Cook considers a wide and eclectic range of
specific "curiosities"...This is a fun, intelligent, sophisticated,
imaginative book. -- K. Blaser * Choice *
Although readers may very well wonder whether there is anything
more to be said about P. T. Barnum and 'humbuggery' in
nineteenth-century America, this superb book provides a resounding
affirmation. The research is impressive, the presentation is
engaging and flows smoothly...[A] compelling book. -- Michael
Kammen * American Studies *
James W. Cook's book on 'artful deceptions' in nineteenth-century
American popular culture is not merely fascinating, fluently
written, and engaging to read. It sheds light on a number of
different subjects and helps us to appreciate the thoroughly
interconnected nature of cultural phenomena in what he calls, quite
appropriately, the 'age of Barnum.' Indeed, it is a stellar example
of cultural history, providing the reader with both a vivid picture
of the specific social milieu that encouraged this new mode of
exhibition and an understanding of the more amorphous intellectual
climate that influenced exhibitors and audiences alike. Making
shrewd use of the available evidence, Cook has written a book
filled with compelling stories and anecdotal details. Yet what
stands out in the end is the rigor and incisiveness of his
analysis--the provocative conclusions he derives from his vignettes
and the remarkable way that he is able to make us see their larger
significance...The Arts of Deception is an important work in
the new historiography of popular culture. -- Charles L. Ponce de
Leon * Journal of Social History *
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