This book consists of richly illustrated essays which explore aspects of romanticism in art, architecture and design. North America, England, Russia, Norway, Finland, Japan, Poland, Hungary and Ireland are represented by pioneering experts working in a rich field of ongoing research. The reforming influence of Utopian socialism on aspirations towards a recognizable cultural identity and political independence was expressed in a variety of intriguingly analogous national forms and images. As each nation sought the roots of its own culture at the turn of the century, a powerful, often eclectic, visual vocabulary developed which was inspired by folk, native and traditional art, language, literature, music and architecture as well as by heroic periods in the history or mythology of the nation.