Books by John McWilliams

This book is an account of the ways the promise and threat of political revolution has informed historical novels from Walter Scott to the near present. Building upon of the Marxist scholarly tradition of Georg Lukacs and Frederic Jameson, this book emphasizes the transformation of literary conventions to adapt to changing historical contexts.

This book considers the portrayal of the American national character in the writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville. It examines Hawthorne's abiding concern with the development of New England from colony to province to republic, and analyses Melville's changing evocation of 'the new American', and the difficulties he faced in sustaining his heady nationalistic faith.