Steven Blakemore offers a close reading of The Columbiad within the context of contemporary national debates over the significance of America. In doing so, he helps the reader understand the variety of national discourses that Barlow was promoting, challenging, or subverting. Long neglected, The Columbiad fundamentally engages the core issues and strategies of national self-definition and the creation of a vital republican culture. This book will appeal to all those interested in early American literature, the literature of the early Republic, and American literary nationalism.