Marilyn Butler places the Romantics into their proper historical setting. She relates the events and developments of the time--the French and American Revolutions, the Napoleonic Wars, the expansion of agriculture, trade, and industry, growing economic and social pressures--to the cultural forces which shaped these writers. She reveals common factors which engaged the separate efforts of so many truly individual creative minds, and the fierce personal and artistic politics of an age in the midst of profound change. She shows that the literature produced during this dynamic, restless time is nowhere near as homogenous as is generally assumed, and she illuminates the ways in which these various experimental works reflected radically new sensibilities and aspirations.--From publisher's description.