Vernon Louis Parrington was a pioneer in the development of historical approaches to American literature. His reputation is based almost solely upon a single work written late in his career, Main Currents in American Thought (1927, 1930). The title suggests Parrington's emphasis on discovering the principal intellectual movements characteristic of writing in America. Parrington defined "literature" in its older sense, as the significant body of written work produced by a culture in its efforts to shape and know itself. His analyses thus included writers of sermons, political tracts, philosophical treatises, and legal arguments as well as poets, playwrights, novelists, satirists, and essayists. Since Parrington concentrated on how literature constituted a history of ideas reflecting the evolving conflicts in American society, his work was of equal interest to historians and literary critics, and indeed it is difficult to place Parrington or his studies in either category.

The first two volumes of...