Poetry Wars by Colin Wells - 9780812249651

Poetry WarsVerse and Politics in the American Revolution and Early Republic\nAuthor(s): Colin Wells\nFormat: Hardback\nPublisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, United States\nImprint: University of Pennsylvania Press\nISBN-13: 9780812249651, 978-0812249651\nSynopsis\nDuring America's founding period, poets and balladeers engaged in a series of literary \""wars\"" against political leaders, journalists, and each other, all in the name of determining the political course of the new nation. Political poems and songs appeared regularly in newspapers (and as pamphlets and broadsides), commenting on political issues and controversies and satirizing leaders like Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. Drawing on hundreds of individual poems-including many that are frequently overlooked-Poetry Wars reconstructs the world of literary-political struggle as it unfolded between the Stamp Act crisis and the War of 1812.\n Colin Wells argues that political verse from this period was a unique li.