The changing market society of the nineteenth century had a deep impact on American
writers and their works. The writers responded with important insights into the alienation …

First published between 1982 and 1983, this series examines the peculiarly American
cultural context out of which the nation's literature has developed. Covering the years from …

Largely ignored in American literary history, the magazine novel was extremely popular
throughout the nineteenth century, with editors describing the form as a virtual" necessity" for …

America at the last fin de siècle was in a period of profound societal transition.
Industrialization was well under way and with it a burgeoning sense of professionalism and …

Cultures of Letters illuminates the changing place made for literature in American cultural
life. Offering critics and general readers alike a fresh view of America's literary past, this book …

Did the emergence of a free press liberate eighteenth-century American authors? Most
critics and historians have assumed so. In a study certain to force a rethinking of early …

Late nineteenth-century America saw an explosion in mass culture—from sensationalist
tabloid newspapers to amusement parks to Wild West shows. Historians and critics have …

In the aftermath of America's centennial celebrations of 1876, readers developed an appetite
for chronicles of the nation's past. Born amid this national vogue, the field of American …

This collection captures the sense—at times the ordeal—of the 1930s literary experience in
America. Fourteen essayists deal with the experience of being a writer in a time of …

American historians have typically argued that a shared experience of time worked to bind
the antebellum nation together. Trains, technology, and expanding market forces catapulted …