Caroline Matilda Warren Thayer's novel and religious writings reveal changing attitudes toward American republicanism and the role of "virtue" in an atmosphere of liberal individualism at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century. Her themes are contemporary cultural issues, including authorship and novel reading, male conduct and female morals and manners, domestic violence and dueling, the relationship of familial duty, class or social rank, and the politics of nation building. In addition her letters and other writings offer revealing insights into Calvinistic doctrines of the time and testify to her leadership in educating youth and improving public attitudes toward female education. They not only call attention to prevailing attitudes toward private education and issues of religious and civil liberty but also chart one woman's commitment to--and questioning of--early Methodism and rival secular and religious ideologies as they existed in early-nineteenth-century rural and...