Epics of Disaffection

Epics of Disaffection is an exploration of the epic imagina­tion. It brings a historian's sensibility and expertise to bear on four eccentric works of literary genius, each of a differ­ent genre: The Lord of the Rings, War and Peace, and two books by the historian E. P. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class and The Sykaos Papers. Each underwent a metamorphosis in the course of composition, emerging as an account of a historical crisis - actual or fictional - set in a broader temporal