A Mirror for History
A Mirror for History uses novels and art to provide a new understanding of the development of American society. The book argues that the arc of middle-class culture, between 1750 and 2020, reflects the evolution of the economy.
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About Marc Egnal
Marc Egnal is an American historian, who was born in Philadelphia, received his B.A. from Swarthmore College, and completed his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin.
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Egnal has ‘plowed the sea’ of American literature and produced a sweeping, piercing work endless with insight and magisterial in scope.“
Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
“Egnal convincingly makes a case for how art reflects social and economic change. More than a book about novels, A Mirror for History is an original piece of historical methodology.“
Andrew Hartman, author of Marx in America“
A fascinating book that combines history, economics, literary criticism and distant reading to offer a sweeping portrait of the rising and falling middle class in America, by way of the ultimate middle-class art form, the novel.”
Stephen Marche, author of The Next Civil War
A Mirror for History introduces an engaging and bold new way of interpreting American social history.”
Elizabeth Abbott, author of A History of Marriage
A conversation with Marc Egnal
Marc Egnal discusses his new book “A Mirror for History”.
