"In Writing Revolution, Peter J. Bellis explores the ways in which literature can engage with - rather than escape from or obscure - social and political issues.".

"Bellis argues that a number of nineteenth-century American writers, including Nathanial Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Walt Whitman, saw their texts as spaces where alternative social and cultural possibilities could be suggested and explored. All writing in the same historical moment, Bellis's subjects were responding to the same cluster of issues: the need to redefine America identity after the Revolution, the problem of race slavery, and the growing industrialization of American society.".

"In addition to covering selected works by Hawthorne, Whitman, and Thoreau, Bellis also examines powerful works of social and political critique by Louisa May Alcott and Margaret Fuller. With its suggestions for new ways of reading antebellum American writing, Writing Revolution breaks through the thickets of contemporary literary discourse and will spark debate in the literary community."--BOOK JACKET.