This challenging study of a number of American writers belongs in the tradition of the history-of-ideas approach to literary history. It offers an analysis of American literary developments and the relationship between writers and the philosophical and social thought of their times. Martin examines the works of Emerson, Whitman, Dickinson, Crane, Frost, Pound, Hemingway, Dos Passos, Stevens, Williams, and several others with a sharp eye for the artistic...

Traces the scientific and philosophical expansion of the concept of "force" in the 19th century, particularly in the work of Herbert Spencer, whose "Synthetic Philosophy" made the idea available to a wide range of writers. Details how Spencer helped to shape social ideals, ethical standards and the way people conceived of their place metaphysically in a period that was dominated by secular and scientific thought. Martin scrutinizes the force theory...