American TerrorIf America is a nation founded upon Enlightenment ideals, then why are so many of its most celebrated pieces of literature so dark? American Terror returns to the question of American literature's distinctive tone of terror through a close study of three authorsJonathan Edwards, Edgar Allan Poe, and Herman Melvillewho not only wrote works of terror, but who defended, theorized, and championed it. Combining updated historical perspectives with close