In this study, Linda M. Grasso demonstrates that using anger as a mode of analysis and the basis of an aesthetic transforms our understanding of American women's literary history. She explores how black and white 19th-century women writers defined, expressed and dramatized anger.

Grasso explores the ways in which black and white 19th-century women writers define, express, and dramatize anger. Offering close readings of works by Lydia Maria Child, Maria W. Stewart, Fanny Fern, and Harriet Wilson, she shows how women used an aesthetic of discontent to address such complex social and political issues as slavery, industrialization, imperialism, and race relations.