In recent years, the practice of teaching political theory through literature and the arts has become widespread. Taken together, the essays in this book, written by 9 prominent practitioners, review "the state of the art" in this emerging field, dealing with the general nature of connections between political theory and literature and visual arts, with an eye to its political content and meaning. The contributors consider what makes a literary work "political", political values and literature, literature, politics and feminism and the way in which particular novels comment on political thought and behaviour. A particular focus of the volume is the way in which political ideas particular to the American political culture are expressed in American novels - both in classic works and in modern novels and popular fiction.