Citizenship on Catfish Row

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Focusing on three pivotal American cultural works, the book examines how D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, Oscar Hammerstein and Jerome Kern's Showboat, and George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess address themes of race and national identity. Each piece, while groundbreaking, reveals tensions between the narratives Americans aspire to create and the complex realities of race relations. Despite facing criticism, these works offer valuable insights into the historical American imagination and encourage contemporary reflection on the intertwined nature of nationhood and race.