This study, published in 2000, examines the dialogue between Romantic poetry and the human sciences of the period. Maureen McLane reveals how Romantic writers participated in a new-found consciousness of human beings as a species, by analysing their work in relation to discourses on moral philosophy, political economy and anthropology. Writers such as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley explored the possibilities and limits of human being, language and hope. They engaged with the work of theorisers of the human sciences - Malthus, Godwin and Burke among them. The book offers original readings of canonical works, including Lyrical Ballads, Frankenstein and Prometheus Unbound, to show how the Romantics internalised and transformed ideas about the imagination, perfectibility, immortality and population which so energised contemporary moral and political debates. McLane provides a defence of poetry in both Romantic and contemporary theoretical terms, reformulating the predicament of Romanticism in general and poetry in particular.

"Romanticism and the Human Sciences offers fresh perspectives on canonical texts and ultimately seeks to sketch a position that both recontextualizes romantic arguments and remains sensitive to how those arguments themselves test the boundaries of any merely contextual reading. In raising far-reaching questions with seriousness and candor, it does not shy away from the very real difficulties of its subject, and it makes a compelling case that the challenge posed by romanticism to today's readers--whether humanist, anti-humanist, or none of the above--remains as potent and problematic as ever." Deborah Elise White, Emory University, Studies in Romanticism

"a thought-provoking reflection on the value of Romantic literature... a valuable contribution to our understanding of the period. [McLane] demonstrates that the new ways of understanding human beings in society, the new modes of calculating human worth, envisioning human possibility, and quantifying human lives exerted a powerful influence on Romantic writing." Romanticism on the Net

"Intriguing....the overall quetion of the connection between literature and anthropology during the Romantic age proves to be very fertile ground for elaborate and detailed discussions of both literary and theoretical texts of that period." Variations

"Her [McLane's] readings of individual works are...frequently brilliant..." Albion

"A book of wide scope and intellectual ambition." RedNova News