Twelve critical essays discussing a variety of authors, providing an inspiring credo on the history of ideas in this country.

Toward a pluralistic criticism -- Walt Whitman and his Leaves of grass -- The medievalism of Henry Adams -- William Dean Howells as Henry James's "Moral policeman" -- The turn of the screw and Alice James -- A robber baron revises The octopus -- Mencken and the South -- Anatomist of monsters -- Hart Crane in limbo: Hart Crane and his friends ; The "Unfractioned idiom" of The bridge -- Mr. Eliot regrets... -- Poetry since the deluge -- Mass media and literature.