Book excerpt: Approaching the period of 1880 to 1930 in American literature as one in which the processes of rethinking the past were as prevalent as wholly 'new' works of art, this collection treats the century's long turn as a site that overtly staged the tension among conflicting sets of values-those of past, present, and the imagined future. Navigating established literary modes as well as anticipatory inscriptions of the 'modern,' turn-of-the-century authors continually negotiated ideological boundaries, treating the century's long turn as a period ripe for experimentation. Essays in the collection, which range across topics such as canonicity, advice literature, Native American education, companionate marriage, turn-of-the-century feminism, dime novels, and the Harlem Renaissance, stress the hybridity born of multiple historical investments.