A major theme in American literature, beginning with the Puritans of the seventeenth century and extending into the first half of the current century, has been the perception of human nature as innately depraved. In this study, Michael Mages employs a history of ideas approach to his subject that results in a book which resembles some of the classics of American literary history.

Covering over 300 years of American literary history, Mages shows the continuing influence of a theme that originated even before this country was a nation. Strong linkages are made with the nature of American puritanism, the Indian frontier, romanticism and decadence as literary modes. Authors as disparate as Cotton Mather, Edgar Allen Poe, Henry James, Hart Crane, D. H. Lawrence, and William Faulkner are explored and imaginatively discussed.