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A provocative, exuberant, and deeply researched investigation into Mark Twain's writing of Huckleberry Finn, which turns on its head everything we thought we knew about America's favorite icon of childhood.In Huck Finn's America, award-winning biographer Andrew Levy shows how modern readers have been misunderstanding Huckleberry Finn for decades. Twain's masterpiece, which still sells tens of thousands of copies each year and is taught more than any other American classic, is often discussed either as a carefree adventure story for children or a serious novel about race relations, yet Levy argues convincingly it is neither. Instead, Huck Finn was written at a time when Americans were nervous about youth violence and "uncivilized" bad boys, and a debate was raging about education, popular culture, and responsible parenting - casting Huck's now-celebrated "freedom" in a very different and very modern light.