The Troubled Union: Expansionist Imperatives in Post-Reconstruction American Novels

(The Ohio State University Press) In this book, Gonz á lez traces the imperialist imaginings behind literary efforts to reunite the United States after the Civil War and Reconstruction. He shows how the U.S. historical romance attempted to rebuild a national identity by reimagining Manifest Destiny through marriage and courtship plots. In his new readings of much studied novels, he elucidates just how the imperial national allegory deeply structured the U.S. cultural imagination of the late 19th century. Gonz á lez is associate professor of English at The University of Texas at Austin.