Moving back to the trial of Anne Hutchinson in Puritan Massachusetts and the captivity narrative of Mary Rowlandson in order to analyse theo-political signification, Loebel provides a new context for examining the politically performative function of language in such texts as and "The Scarlet Letter, and " and "Uncle Tom's Cabin, and " and "Waiting for the Verdict. and " He also argues, however, that a specific theo-logic manifests itself in the political rhetoric of the nation, such that the afterlife of the and "New Jerusalem and " resonates not just in the and "Blessings of Liberty and " enshrined in the Constitution but also in the shift from a religious understanding of union with Jesus to that of the Union of States as a nation. Loebel compares unionist and confederate discourse, opening up new ways of theorising representation as a political, theological, legal, and literary issue that has continued currency both in twentieth-century literature and in the political discourse of America's global vision, such as the and "axis of evil and " and the and "new world order. and " Anyone interested in American literature and culture will view the relationship between ethics and justice differently after reading this book.