Moses in America

This book explores the retelling of the life of Moses in three 20th-century American narratives: Moses in Red, by Lincoln Steffens; Moses, Man of the Mountain, by Zora Neale Hurston; and Cecil B. DeMille's film, The Ten Commandments. Wright's analysis reveals that the figure of Moses has strong currency in American culture at many levels: mainstream, white and black, intellectual and academic, religious and secular. More generally, she seeks throughout to address the question of why these three artists believed their arguments - and wright insists that they are arguments - were best advanced by the re-presentation of an ancient biblical narrative.