Love in the Time of Revolution

“[This] study is most successful in its detail, and [Cayton’s] methodical research into the transatlantic commerce in emotional theories is particularly impressive. . . . Cayton’s subject is a well-chosen and fascinating one.” — Times Literary Supplement

“A well-written imaginative re-creation, based on historical research, of the motives, thoughts, arguments, and interrelationships of important British and American radicals.” — American Historical Review

“I cannot think of a recent scholarly work in Atlantic studies that is more agreeably written or better oriented toward the general reader.” — New England Quarterly

“In his carefully crafted, emotionally evocative study, Love in the Time of Revolution: Transatlantic Literary Radicalism and Historical Change, 1793-1818, Andrew Cayton invites us to revisit this familiar story and reconsider it in the contexts of eighteenth-century political economy and literary production.” — William and Mary Quarterly

“Working mostly from published sources, but some archival collections as well, Cayton evokes the intense interplay between what Wollstonecraft and her circle were reading, and how they were living.” — SEL

“Demonstrates a remarkable versatility in his analysis and willingness to engage with different genres.” — The Journal of Modern History

“From a renowned historian of war comes a luminous book about the revolutionary nature of love. Centered on Mary Wollstonecraft and her circle, Love in the Time of Revolution combines biography, literary history, and political economy in wholly unexpected ways. Writing with a novelist’s insight and urgency, Cayton brings to life the transatlantic republic of letters that sought to remake a warring world.” — Jane Kamensky, Brandeis University

“A sophisticated history of women and men who recognized fresh potentials in heterosexual love in a revolutionary age. Cayton’s is a highly original vision of the familiar loves of Wollstonecraft, Imlay, and Godwin above all, but of their children and contemporaries, too, set in transatlantic perspective.” — G.J. Barker-Benfield, State University of New York, Albany

“Cayton’s book will become the new starting point for understanding the cultural ferment that accompanied the political revolutions of the late eighteenth century. By braiding together the life histories of Mary Wollstonecraft and her radical contemporaries, Cayton brilliantly reveals the dynamic interplay between the personal and the political in this era of dramatic change.” — Seth Cotlar, Willamette University

“This vivid and important account of the age of revolutions turns the spotlight on friendship and love. A generation of radical writers, and the men and women who read them, enacted a revolution in personal relationships. To understand the true radicalism of the age, their stories of cultural innovation must be added to the better-known narratives of political liberty and republican experiment. In Cayton’s dexterous interpretation, the era was as personally transformative as it was politically turbulent, with dramatic consequences not only for the actors but also for their nineteenth-century children.” — Sarah Knott, Indiana University