Abstract
This ambitious book is an attempt to use literary works in order to chart the relationship between the liberal imagination and war. As such, Adams, Associate Professor of English at Washington and Lee University, reveals a most impressive grasp of the literary tradition of the West. This tradition is understood not simply in terms of fictional works, notably epics, but also extends to epic histories, especially, but not only, those of Gibbon and Churchill. In terms of what he sets out to cover, this is an impressive study of ambiguities in the liberal imagination. War was seen both as a culmination and product of civilization and as an antithesis to its humanism. Adams ably charts the resulting interweaving of these tendencies in the writings of a large number of individuals, for example Alexander Kinglake’s account of the Crimean War.
As a historian of war, I found the book both interesting and unsatisfactory. In particular, the focus on texts led to a consideration of commentators rather than of actors. The latter receive less attention, even though political actors, for example the American War Hawks who triggered the War of 1812, left plentiful sources that would repay Adams’ approach. Yet it would be inappropriate to end on a critical note. Adams’ book is a significant study that will deservedly play a major role in discussions of how war was considered in literature.