{"product_id":"poetry-wars-9780812249651","title":"Poetry Wars","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eDuring America''s founding period, poets and balladeers engaged in a series of literary wars against political leaders, journalists, and each other, all in the name of determining the political course of the new nation. Political poems and songs appeared regularly in newspapers (and as pamphlets and broadsides), commenting on political issues and controversies and satirizing leaders like Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Drawing on hundreds of individual poems—including many that are frequently overlooked—\u003ci\u003ePoetry Wars\u003c\/i\u003e reconstructs the world of literary-political struggle as it unfolded between the Stamp Act crisis and the War of 1812.\u003cbr\u003eColin Wells argues that political verse from this period was a unique literary form that derived its cultural importance from its capacity to respond to, and contest the meaning of, other printed texts—from official documents and political speeches to newspaper articles and rival political poems. First arising during\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"With his comprehensive study of political poetry from the American Revolution through the War of 1812, Colin Wells foregrounds a body of writing not often given extended treatment by literary scholars, but one which, as he superbly demonstrates, played an influential role in shaping the cultural and political landscape of the nation's turbulent, but formative, early years . . . \u003ci\u003ePoetry Wars\u003c\/i\u003e unearths a trove of poems published in partisan newspapers and other print outlets to reveal the intricate ideological and rhetorical dy-namics at work in the political debates that shaped the new nation and the active role that poetry played in them. [Wells] therefore makes a persuasive case that poetry, despite W. H. Auden's later assertion to the contrary, does, in fact, make things happen.\" * \u003ci\u003eEarly American Literature\u003c\/i\u003e *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003ePoetry Wars\u003c\/i\u003e explains the explosion of printed verse at the end of the eighteenth century in America and the evolution of several strands of political consciousness articulated through poetry. Arguing that poetry, not prose, was in fact the dominant belletristic mode of expression in the early United States, Colin Wells provides an important corrective to our understanding of American literary history.\" * David Shields, University of South Carolina *\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003ePoetry Wars\u003c\/i\u003e offers an erudite and engaging account of the surprisingly instrumental role of verse in U.S. nation formation. Colin Wells gives us a sense of how bold, playful, and rhetorically incisive political poems could be. He has done literary history a great service by recovering a time when poetry was both a vital force in public life and a dynamic means of effecting political change.\" * Edward Cahill, Fordham University *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIntroduction\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 1. The Poetics of Resistance\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 2. War and Literary War\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 3. Poetry and Conspiracy\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 4. The Language of Liberty\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 5. The Voice of the People\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 6. Mirror Images\u003cbr\u003e Chapter 7. The Triumph of Democracy\u003cbr\u003e Epilogue\u003cbr\u003e Notes\u003cbr\u003e Index\u003cbr\u003e Acknowledgments\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"University of Pennsylvania Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49405733568855,"sku":"9780812249651","price":49.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780812249651.jpg?v=1730493430","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/poetry-wars-9780812249651","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}