When Sacvan Bercovitch’s The American Jeremiad first appeared in 1978, it was hailed as a landmark study of dissent and cultural formation in America, from the Puritans’ writings through the major literary works of the antebellum era. For this long-awaited anniversary edition, Bercovitch has written a deeply thoughtful and challenging new preface that reflects on his classic study of the role of the political sermon, or jeremiad, in America from a contemporary perspective, while assessing developments in the field of American studies and the culture at large.

"Perhaps the most penetrating examination yet published of 'the sources of our obsessive concern with the meaning of America.'"--Jack P. Greene, "History"
"The most valuable achievement in colonial American literature since the best work of Perry Miller."--David Levin, "William and Mary Quarterly"
"A brave and brilliant book...that is the most significant and far-reaching contribution to the theory of American literature in recent years."--Alan Trachtenberg, "Partisan Review"
"A study which reaches with daring ease from the Bible and Augustine to Emerson and Whitman... [and] offers an agenda for the next several decades of scholarly work on colonial religious studies."--John F. Wilson, "Theology Today"
"[Bercovitch] casts a dazzling light on the myth of America and the conundrums of individuality and community that are the core of the American character."--Michael Zuckerman, "Early American Literature"

'Recipient of the Modern Language Association's James Russell Lowell Prize.' "Goes a long way to proving that any literary masterpiece, read with sympathy and intelligence, works to re-establish the connections between the work of art and the life and thought of its time."--James R. Mellow, 'Times Literary Supplement'

Between the Revolution and the Civil War there developed in the United States a new culture - modern and liberal. With a new vision of community and nationality and an interwoven set of institutions (legal, political and religious), it had as a link between all these, a complex system of symbols, rituals, and beliefs. The subject of The Rites of Assent is the growth of this symbolic economy. Sacvan Bercovitch traces its origins back to the colonial period, and specifically to the legacy of early New England. He analyses the manifold functions of America' - as a view of history, a spiritual ideal, a myth of origins, and a mode of identity - in the work of influential figures from the Revolution to the Civil War. The major part of the book explores these themes in the work of classic American writers - Hawthorne, Melville, and Emerson. Bercovitch's focus is broadly cultural, emphasizing the connection between politics and language, popular and high literature, social action and creative expression. His book will be valuable reading for Americanists in every field, and to students of literature and culture.