This study surveys portraits of American Revolutionary heroes in books, magazines and school texts from 1782 to 1832 and relates these sketches to cultural changes of the period. Faced with rapid and sometimes unsettling change, historians, biographers and editors of the period offered their readers narrative and visual portraits of heroes, hoping to promote classical civic virtues during a time when business-minded Americans increasingly pursued individual gain. The 50 years following the Revolution saw biography shift from historical narration to description of private experience. During...

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.