Deviating from the romanticism of early works, American literature that emerged after the mid-19th century adopted a distinct realism and often critical view of American society. With penetrating analyses, writers such as Henry Adams and Upton Sinclair exposed fundamental flaws in government and industry, while Mark Twain and H.L. Mencken incisively satirized social ills such as prejudice and intolerance. Readers of this volume will encounter these and other great minds--and fluid pens--that challenged the status quo, as well as those whose works that chronicled the path of a nation experiencing great change.