| Summary: | Nickels examines the various forms of comedic popular artifacts produced in America from 1861 to 1865, and looks at how wartime humour was created, disseminated, and received by both sides of the conflict. Song lyrics, newspaper columns, sheet music covers, illustrations, political cartoons, fiction, light verse, paper dolls, printed envelopes, and penny dreadful - from and for the Union and the Confederacy - are analysed at length. This comprehensive overview examines humour's role in shaping and reflecting the cultural imagination of the US during its most tumultuous period.
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