Mercenaries in British and American Literature, 1790–1830

In Mercenaries in British and American Literature, 1790-1830 , Erik Simpson proposes the mercenary as a meeting point of psychological, national, and ideological issues that connected the severed nations of Britain and America following the American Revolution. When writers treat the figure of the mercenary in literary works, the general issues of incentive, independence, and national service become intertwined with two of the well-known social developments of the period: an increased ability of