History
477
Devine
Spring
2013
Neil
Harris, Humbug: The Art of P.T. Barnum
Chapter 3,
“The Operational Aesthetic”
- Why did
antebellum Americans – who European visitors considered hard-headed and skeptical
– seem so susceptible to hoaxes such as Joice Heth and the Fiji Mermaid? According to the author, why did
Americans’ skepticism and pride in their technological acumen make them
all the more susceptible to such hoaxes?
- How did
the democratic, egalitarian political culture of Jacksonian
America facilitate Americans’ willingness to believe in hoaxes?
- How did
Americans’ reading preferences reflect their infatuation with technology
and science?
- How did
Barnum capitalize on Americans’ interest in hoaxes? Why were his advertising techniques
especially effective at luring customers to his attractions?
- Why does
the author argue that American audiences preferred to focus on unmasking
hoaxes rather than contemplating works of art?
- How did
Barnum redefine what constituted “good” art? How was his definition
somewhat related to the Transcendentalists’ notions of “good” art?
- What does
the author mean by the term “operational aesthetic”?
- How were
deception, exposure, and even conspiracy related? Why were all equally fascinating to
American audiences?
- Why was
the South less enamored with both Barnum and the operational
aesthetic?
- Why was
the fiction of Harriet Beecher Stowe and especially Edgar Allen Poe
popular with antebellum Americans?
How does this popularity relate to the operational aesthetic?
- Why did
Barnum believe that in appealing to American audiences, “perfection and
absolute conviction in exhibits made them less valuable” (89)?
Chapter 8 “The
Man of Confidence”
- What
kinds of messages does Barnum convey to readers in the early chapters of
his autobiography?
- How do
the early chapters reflect Barnum’s fascination with the gap between the
real and the apparent?
- What were
some of the characteristics of the “Yankee” of Barnum’s day? What did the Yankee’s critics say about
him?
- According
to the author, how did Barnum want his readers to see him? What evidence does the author give to
support his argument?
- Why was
Barnum ambivalent or even dubious about the very “Yankee” qualities that had
made him rich? Why did he believe that “the greatest humbug of all was the
man who believed everything and everyone to be humbug”? (217)
- How did
Barnum define “humbug”? Why did
Barnum defend illusion and exaggeration?
What good purpose did such things serve?
- Why might
the existence of successful “confidence men” be an indication of a healthy
society?
- What
explains the virulent negative reaction to Barnum and his autobiography
among British commentators?
- Why does
the author believe Barnum’s attitude about entertainment and toward his
audience was more democratic than that of his British critics?
- Why did
Barnum become a hero to an antebellum American society that, according to
the author, “worshipped both equality and achievement”? Why did Americans
accept Barnum as both a trickster and a moralist?