American Literature in Context to 1865

Susan Castillo is Harriet Beecher Stowe Professor of American Studies at King’s College London and has published extensively on colonial writing of the Early Americas, Native American writing, and on the U.S. South. Her books include The Literatures of Colonial America: An Anthology (Wiley-Blackwell, 2001), A Companion to the Literatures of Colonial America (Wiley-Blackwell, 2005), Colonial Encounters in New World Writing, 1500-1786: Performing America (2005) and American Travel Writing and Empire (2009).

"Joining numerous other volumes in the "Literature in Context" series, this is an excellent starting point for students of American literature. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-and upper-division undergraduates; general readers." (Choice, 1 August 2011) "The book includes a transatlantic timeline featuring key literary works and historical events, in addition to suggestions for further reading and a few b&w art illustrations." (Booknews, 1 April 2011)"In the end this book is an innovative soul within a traditional body.  It presents the historical context of American writing from a variety of perspectives within a period structure relevant to many current college courses." (NBOL-19, October 2010)

• Preface viiiAcknowledgments ixTimeline of Texts and Historical Events xThe Arrival of the Europeans 1European Exploration and Settlement: The Anvil and the Golden Fleece 17The City on a Hill: Alternative Visions 32From Colonies to Nation 61The Struggle for Identity in Post-Revolutionary America 80American Expansion and the Transcendentalists 98The Originals: Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, and Walt Whitman 124A House Divided: Abolitionism, the Women’s Movement, and the Civil War 146Bibliography 171Index 180