T. S. Eliot and Ideology

This book demonstrates the effect of politics on the work of T.S. Eliot, with particular emphasis on the influences of French reactionary thinking. Kenneth Asher argues that this political inheritance provided the intellectual framework Eliot employed throughout his career. The focus of this political dimension separates the book from previous studies of Eliot. The result is a reestimation of Eliot's view of literary history and literary theory, and new appraisals of several major poems and plays.

• Was the first book to focus on influence of French reactionary thought on Eliot's work
• Argues a continuous, consistent Eliot, and relates pre- and post-conversion concerns, eschewing notion of rupture
• Traces the influence of Eliot's ideology on later literary though, particularly the New Critics