This is the first book to examine the literature of the Romantic period as a conscious attempt to effect the religious transformation of society. Robert Ryan argues that the political quarrel that preoccupied England during the Romantic period was in large part an argument about the religious character of the nation, and that the Romantics became active and conspicuous participants in this public debate. Where critics have traditionally viewed the Romantics as creative metaphysicians articulating private visions of a transcendent order in detachment from actual social conflict, Ryan shows instead that their religious prescriptions were formulated in response to specific historical and social circumstances. This book shows how the careers of Blake, Wordsworth, Byron, Keats, and the Shelleys are radically reconfigured when viewed in the context of the period's passionate debate on religion, politics and society.

This is the first book to examine the literature of the Romantic period as a conscious attempt to affect the religious transformation of society. Robert Ryan argues that the political quarrel that preoccupied England during the Romantic period was in large part an argument about the religious character of the nation, and that the Romantics became active and conspicuous participants in this public debate. Ryan shows how the careers of the Romantic poets are radically reconfigured when viewed in the context of the period's passionate debate on religion, politics and society.

In response to the terrorist attacks on the United States on 11 September 2001, the President - as Commander-in-Chief and authorized by Congress in Joint Resolution 23 -- ordered the armed forces of the United States into combat " to disrupt and defeat the global terror network and Al Qaeda." A new strategic paradigm was upon America. The war that was largely in the shadows now emerged as our central strategic landscape. For much of the last century, America's defense relied on the Cold War doctrines of deterrence and containment. In some cases, those strategies still apply. But new threats also require new thinking. Deterrence -- the promise of massive retaliation against nations -- means nothing against shadowy terrorist networks without any nation or citizens to defend. Containment is not possible when unbalanced dictators with weapons of mass destruction can deliver those weapons on missiles or secretly provide them to terrorist allies. The President concurrently signed a Presidential Finding that directed the armed forces and other government agencies (OGA) to use "all means necessary to destroy terrorist network operations and their leaders and The directive designated the Area of Responsibility (AOR) and placed Combatant Commander, U.S. Central Command, in command of all operations."

If, as George Gissing once wrote, "to like Keats is a test of fitness for understanding poetry", then the essays collected in this volume suggest that literary criticism remains a lively and vigorous endeavor. Written by a broad range of prominent scholars -- senior Romanticists as well as younger critics and major poets -- the essays offer a fresh reevaluation of the nature and importance of John Keats's achievement. The idealistic aesthete or humanistic hero admired by earlier generations of readers develops into a much richer, more complex image of the poet. The product of a continuing critical dialogue, this new Keats attests not only to his own enduring appeal but to the persistent vitality of poetry itself amid the distractions of a fragmented postmodern culture.

An introduction by Robert M. Ryan reviews the history of Keats scholarship, situating new critical assessments by M. H. Abrams, Walter Jackson Bate, Eavan Boland, David Bromwich, Hermione de Almeida, Terence Alan Hoagwood, Elizabeth Jones, Debbie Lee, Philip Levine, Donald H- Reiman, Ronald A. Sharp, George Steiner, Jack Stillinger, Aileen Ward, and Susan Wolfson.