Revolution and the Word

"Essential reading in the field of history of the book. Well written and accessible to undergraduates."--Rosalind Remer, Moravian College

"[A] magnificent source book."--Leonard Cassuto, Fordham University

"An excellent study, learned and discerning, far and away the best book ever written on the early American novel. It is important...as a reinterpretation of the literary culture of the whole early national era...and--beyond that--as a model in some important respects for literary historians working in any period and genre."--American Literature

"[A] complex, wide-ranging, and important book....[It] takes its place as one of the first important books...written on the American side of this still evolving, strongly interdisciplinary field."--Journal of the Early Republic

"Drawing on recent work in social history, post-structuralist literary theory and feminist studies, [Davidson] argues persuasively that the genesis of American fiction was an integral part of a widespread crisis of authority in early modern America....A wonderful book."--The Nation

"A fascinating and groundbreaking book."--Philadelphia Inquirer

"Revolution and the Word--sophisticated, comprehensive and imaginative--charts this wilderness birthplace of American fiction and updates our notion of literary criticism in the process....As remarkable for its methods as for its message."--San Francisco Chronicle

"An engaging combination of information and analysis, Davidson's book on the production and readers of the early novel will be a valuable resource for anyone interested in the history of the novel, of reading, or of American literature."--Library Journal

"Truly original scholarship that will alter our perceptions of writers and readers, and fiction and history, in the United States."--Emory Elliott, Princeton University

"The publication of Revolution and the Word signals a new maturity in literary criticism of the fiction of early America. The result is truly original scholarship that will alter our perceptions of writers and readers, and fiction and history, in the United States."--Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside

"This remarkable, rigorously interdisciplinary book will permanently revise our understanding of the early American novel and the subversive, truly democratic effect it had upon the disenfranchised of the new nation."--Janice Radway, University of Pennsylvania

"An exciting piece of scholarship that brings to life novels that we have so long dismissed by reading them through the eyes of their readers, especially young women....A stunning achievement."--Alfred Young, Northern Illinois University

"Essential reading for anyone interested in the development of American literature."--New England Quarterly

"For historians of post-Revolutionary, early national America this book opens a window to the minds of ordinary Americans as do few other books. It is an exciting pie...

<br>Cathy N. Davidson, Professor of English at Michigan State University and Visiting Professor at Princeton University, has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. She is the editor of the Oxford editions of The Coquette and Charlotte Temple.<br>