The Gold Standard and the Logic of Naturalism

Book excerpt: "Michaels has written a book that will be essential reading for all those interested in American fiction and American culture. . . . This is a daring, brash work of the best kind—it will be much discussed."—Philip Fisher, Brandeis University "Like Michel Foucault, Michaels locates the 'political' in the relations between individuals, in consciousness, and in language. His work represents a far more subtle, internalized, and unschematic conception of the convergence of literature and power than we have had in American studies. He is one of the most gifted practitioners of cultural criticism today."—Leo Marx, Massachusetts Institute of Technology