Challenging prevailing assumptions about the relationship between language and politics, this book offers a compelling new account of aesthetic and economic thought since the eighteenth century. Mieszkowski explores the doctrines of productivity and interest in Romanticism and classical political economy, arguing that the critical force of any historical model of literature depends on its understanding of the distinction between intellectual and material labor. This provocative contribution to contemporary debates about culture and ideology will be important for scholars of literature, history, and political theory.