American literary scholarship in the mid-1980s generally seems to be insufficiently sophisticated to give more than perfunctory attention to ethnicity\u27s significant role in American writing from the colonial period to the present. When intellectual maturation finally is achieved, as there is reason to believe it will be even though progress proceeds at a disappointing snail\u27s pace, credit for the event will be due in part to Philip Butcher\u27s unique and impressive The Ethnic Image in Modern American Literature: 1900-1950, as well as to his earlier two-volume anthology, The Minority Presence in American Literature: 1600-1900 (1977). These are essential books for all libraries
