Civic Myths

“A truly interdisciplinary book as comfortable analyzing the consequences of landmark legal decisions as it is the intricacies of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. . . . [Thomas] parses legal language and its real-world political ramifications and then connects this sort of culture making to that found in literary texts. The result is exciting: not only does he demonstrate the impact such laws had on debates about citizenship, but he also suggests fresh ways of understanding texts long saturated with commentary.”—American Literature

“Embraces the possibility of the literary artist as civic referee. . . . Illuminates and complicates the various ideals of citizenship. . . [by guiding] readers through the complex legal and historical terrain in which those ideals have been revealed. . . . A demanding and productive model of scholarship, as well as an insistent call for applying that scholarship to civic practice.” — West Virginia History

“Civic Myths provides an innovative contribution to the history of American citizenship that lies at the intersection of cultural criticism and legal studies. By deftly revealing how the social and conceptual contradictions implicated in competing visions of citizenship find their symbolic resolution in literary narrative, Thomas creates a powerful interpretive framework which should appeal to scholars and students in a variety of academic fields.” — Mark S. Weiner, Rutgers School of Law, Newark

“From one of the most respected Americanists in the field, what is dramatized here is nothing less than the contradictions lurking in the utopian dream of a 'government of the people, by the people, and for the people.' Analyzing these contradictions, Civic Myths speaks directly to our current legal and political climate. Thomas’s forceful argument is both historically salient and utterly timely.” — Wai Chee Dimock, Yale University