In this issue: A 19th-century stage manager sows blood and thunder; the righteous tones of a patriotic black newspaper; and early Americans envision an inspired past.

Thomas Hamblin’s House of Blood and Thunder: The Transformation of New York’s Bowery Theatre in the Early 19th Century

Robert Davis, Adjunct Assistant Professor, English Department, John Jay College (CUNY)

Thomas Hamblin (1800-1853) was arguably the most influential—and contradictory—figure in antebellum U.S. theater. An English actor and manager, he became synonymous with American working-class nativist culture. He transformed New York City’s Bowery Theatre from a failed venue for refined drama to what became known as “The House of Blood and Thunder.” Hamblin excelled at producing successful melodramas, tragedies, and farces... > Full Story

Speaking Out in Thunder Tones: Black Chosenness and “Our Government” in the Earliest African American Newspapers

Benjamin Fagan, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Auburn University

In the fall of 1836, a fastidiously well-dressed New Yorker was elected President of the United States. One year later, the country was in the midst of a devastating economic depression, the forced removal of Native Americans from the southeastern states was in full swing, and the regime of slavery seemed more secure than ever. On November 4, 1837, the Colored American, a black newspaper based in New York City, weighed in on the political state of the country... > Full Story

Anticipating a National History for a New Republic

Michael Hattem, The New-York Historical Society and Lang College at The New School

Historical writing in the eighteenth century has not received much attention from scholars of the period in recent years. Nevertheless, the long revolutionary era witnessed an unprecedented explosion of historical cultural production, both in the form of traditional histories and in other emerging cultural forms such as early American poetry, fiction, and art. Before the Revolution, there was as yet no sense of a shared “American” or “colonial” history... > Full Story

Subscribe today to receive the next quarterly issue of the Readex Report in your inbox. Browse previous issues in our archive. If you would like to suggest or contribute an original article, please email the Readex Report editor.