Through an evaluation of six major American historical figures, Discourse and Culture re-assesses the relationship between ideology and cultural formation by asking if cultural change can be explained as a function of discourse.

Chapter 1 Discourse and culture; Chapter 2 The culture of capital; Chapter 3 Class and republicanism; Chapter 4 History and myth; Chapter 5 Gender, social reform and cultural identity; Chapter 6 The rhetoric of racial accommodation; Chapter 7 The black intellectual; Chapter 8 Conclusion;