Milton Reinvented Cultural Reception in 19th-Century America and ‘Our Day’

This book focuses on the cultural reception of Milton and his works in nineteenth-century America. Using reception theory, the work analyzes the contributions of Milton and his writings to demonstrate how major social movements appropriated him in ways that “reinvent” him, making him what Margaret Fuller called “emphatically American.” The book centers on Milton’s influence on the movements focused on the development of American Christianity, abolition, and women’s suffrage. Each group approaches his writings with different “horizons of expectations” determined, in part, by the social problems they address. Each has unique ways of disseminating and consuming information about Milton and his writings, sometimes determined by how readers in different geographical locations read him. And, each debate makes extensive use of American periodicals of the period, revealing critical information about how Milton’s writings were disseminated and deployed. Milton’s presence in these debates helped shape American society at the time and provides proof for us of how Milton can remain relevant in the issues faced by Americans in ‘our day.’

Chapter 1: Introduction: Emphatically American Milton.- Chapter 2: “Religion is freeing itself”: Milton and Religious Liberty in the Nineteenth Century.- Chapter 3: “In the company of Milton”: Milton and Abolition in the Nineteenth Century.- Chapter 4: “Women Are Indebted to Milton”: Milton and Woman’s Rights in the Nineteenth Century.- Chapter 5: Milton in Our Day.

David Boocker is Professor of Literature at the University of Nebraska Omaha, USA. His research interests include Renaissance and Early Modern Literature and Milton and his Influence. David’s published work includes “Milton after 9/11,” in Milton and Popular Culture, “Milton and the Woman Controversy,” in A Search for Meaning: Critical Essays on Early Modern Literature,” and “'Women are indebted to Milton…': Milton and Women’s Rights in the Nineteenth Century,” in Arenas of Conflict: Milton and the Unfettered Mind (winner of the Milton Society of American Irene Samuel Award for the best multi-author collection of essays).