Literature to 1800

No one word, phrase, or clause can capture the wide variety of writings about the early American period published this year. The New England Puritans, slavery, Benjamin Franklin, the novel, and aesthetics are especially prominent, but a number of other topics attract attention too, including the Haitian Revolution, women and empire, poetry, and the theater. Though there are only a few studies of Native Americans, and the Eastern Seaboard continues to dominate, the scholarship in large measure ranges widely and displays the richness and vitality of the field.