McCree presents Irving (17831859) as both an 18th-century neoclassic and a 19th-century Romanticand he thoroughly and logically develops this bifurcated view in this volumes six chapters. McCree reveals Irving to be not only a cynic who believed in world citizenship but also a Romantic whose verbal sketches were inspired by American painters such as Thomas Cole. After a review of past scholarship, McCree employs Irvings cynical philosophy to analyze his writings on Native American, Quaker, and African American injustices. Next, McCree turns to Irvings picturesque art, examining his history of American civilization, especially New York, which was inspired by the Romantic landscape painters. Then, in a chapter dedicated to Irvings Sketch-Book, especially The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, McCree depicts Irving as a cynic attacking American culture. But the final chapter turns to Irvings travel writings about the West, writings that exemplify his belief in world citizenship. Assiduously researched, this volume cogently presents Irving as a world citizen who criticized American nationalism, industrialism, and culture, but also as a writer who embraced the American picturesque, its diversity and natural beauty. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. * Choice Reviews * This is the most original and provocative examination of Irvings literary identity in years. McCree deftly probes the balancing act, as he describes it, between the groundbreaking authors Enlightenment skepticism and his Romantic dream-spinning. With an eye toward both classical and eighteenth-century influences, he returns Irving to his deserved place as a literary stylist whose descriptive skill and philosophic values have been trifled with by nearsighted critics of the modern age. -- Andrew Burstein, Louisiana State University, author of The Original Knickerbocker: The Life of Washington Irving
