The English Department: A Personal and Institutional History

To understand the history of "English," Ross Winterowd insists, one must understand how literary studies, composition-rhetoric studies, and influential textbooks interrelate. Stressing the interrelationship among these three forces, Winterowd presents a history of English studies in the university since the Enlightenment.

Winterowd’s history is unique in three ways. First, it tells the whole story of English studies: it does not separate the history of literary studies from that …