Books in the Horizons in Theory and American Culture series

Linda Bolton uses six extraordinarily resonant moments in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American history to highlight the ethical challenge that the treatment of Native and African persons presented to the new republic's ideal of freedom. Most daringly, she examines the efficacy of the Declaration of Independence as a revolutionary text.

These eleven essays confront the ongoing problem of defining American and modern - terms that often travel together as they defy periodisation and other boundaries. Reading questions of nationalism and literature against the grain, contributors address the epistemology and history of literary canonization.