Romanticism at the End of History

The Romantics lived through a turn of the century that, like our own, seemed to mark an end to history as it had long been understood. They faced accelerated change, including unprecedented state power, armies capable of mass destruction, a polyglot imperial system, and a market economy driven by speculation. In Romanticism at the End of History, Jerome Christensen challenges the prevailing belief that the Romantics were reluctant to respond to social injustice. Through provocative and searching readings of the poetry of Wordsworth; the poems, criticism, and journalism of Coleridge; the Confessions of De Quincey; and Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley, Christensen concludes that during complicated times of war and revolution English Romantic writers were forced to redefine their role as artists.