'''''American History Through Literature 1820-1870''''' is the first part (three volumes) of six volume work with a corresponding three volume set covering 1870-1920. Designed for the general [[reader]], this set presents [[literature]] not as a simple inventory of [[authors]] or titles but rather as a [[history|historical]] and [[culture|cultural]] field viewed from a wide array of contemporary [[perspective]]s. The set, which is "new historicist" in its approach to [[literary criticism]], endorses the notion that not only does history affect literature, but literature itself informs history. | '''''American History Through Literature 1820-1870''''' is the first part (three volumes) of six volume work with a corresponding three volume set covering 1870-1920. Designed for the general [[reader]], this set presents [[literature]] not as a simple inventory of [[authors]] or titles but rather as a [[history|historical]] and [[culture|cultural]] field viewed from a wide array of contemporary [[perspective]]s. The set, which is "new historicist" in its approach to [[literary criticism]], endorses the notion that not only does history affect literature, but literature itself informs history. |