Edition for 1973 published under title: World historical fiction guide: annotated chronological, geographical, and topical list of selected historical novels.

585 new titles, most published from 1980 to 1989, and 213 new editions and supplement volumes of titles cited in the second edition. Appendix and extensive indexes. Recommended for undergraduate bibliographic collections. --ARBA

Approximately fifty historical novels dealing with the American Revolution were published in the United States in the single ten-year period from 1896 to 1906. Benjamin Lawson critically examines the narrative strategies employed in these many novels, the ways in which fiction is made to serve the purpose of vivifying national history. The British conventions of the historical romance in one sense seem to preclude radical declarations of literary independence even in books purportedly about a war against Britain. Working within the formula, these many writers nonetheless created fictional plots which parallel and reflect the enveloping concerns of the War for Independence. Just as the war was sometimes viewed as an Anglo-American family squabble, these metaphorical narratives depict familial and love interests.