Challenging the standard periodization of American literary history, Reconstituting the American Renaissance reinterprets the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson and W

The American Renaissance has been a foundational concept in American literary history for nearly a century. The phrase connotes a period, as well as an event, a

A timely and engrossing critique of the New Americanists

The award-winning Beneath the American Renaissance is a classic work on American literature. It immeasurably broadens our knowledge of our most important litera

Lee demonstrates how Melville, Emerson and others tried to find rational solutions to the slavery conflict.