"A witness to the French Revolution, Wordsworth knew the extremes of republican turmoil and the repressive panic it triggered in conservative British authorities. Toby Benis challenges critical orthodoxy by arguing that the poet rejected the political dogma not only of aristocrats but also of political radicals.

Romanticism on the Road draws upon current discussions of homelessness as well as historical and legal documents to offer a cultural history of Georgian vagrancy and explain why Wordsworth chose the homeless to bear his message."--BOOK JACKET.