Why is English synonymous with literature in the United States? Bonfiglio contextualizes the rising hegemony of English within the anti-labor, anti-immigration, xenophobic, mercantile, militarist, and technocratic ideologies that arose in the US in the first half of twentieth century.

Thomas Paul Bonfiglio is a Professor of Comparative Literature and Linguistics in The Department of Modern Literatures and Cultures at The University of Richmond, USA.