A collection of patriotic works that exemplify the American spirit by such notable people as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Martin Luther King and others.

Collection of poems by various poets; includes short biography of the poets.

The poetry of the mid- and late-eighteenth century has long been regarded as primarily private and apolitical; in this wide-ranging study Dustin Griffin argues that in fact the poets of the period were addressing the great issues of national life--rebellion at home, imperial wars abroad, an expanding commercial empire, an emerging new British national identity. Taking up the topic of patriotic verse, Griffin shows that poets such as Thomas Gray, Christopher Smart, Oliver Goldsmith, and William Cowper were engaged in the century-long debate about the nature of true patriotism.