The Historian's Huck Finn: Reading Mark Twain's Masterpiece as Social and Economic History

Putting Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in historical context, connecting it to pivotal issues like slavery, class, money, and American economic expansion, this book engages readers by presenting American history through the lens of a great novel.

• Presents Twain's book as a historical novel that brings up key historical issues both in the antebellum period in which the novel is set and in the post-Reconstruction period in which it was written

• Identifies how Huckleberry Finn underscores perhaps the cruelest aspect of slavery: the involuntary separation of husbands, wives, and children from each other

• Ideal reading for college and high school students taking American history classes as well as general readers with an interest in American history, Mark Twain, or both

• Provides extensive annotations that are useful, accessible, and interesting to readers without specialized knowledge of 19th-century history