The dissertation looks at the reformist tradition in the British and the American scenes. It argues that the Anglo-British debate over the significance of the French Revolution initiated by Edmund Burke profoundly altered the English language with respect to the usage of the terms "revolution" and "reform," producing our modern concepts of the terms which seek, respectively, to establish a discontinuity or continuity with an existing state of affairs or institutions. This debate also initiated a larger Anglo-American conversation about the role of existing institutions in society. Through a study of political discourse, fiction, and poetry, 'feeling'/'sentiment' are shown to play a significant role in the conversation about the attachment and detachment to existing institutions. The project ultimately concludes that both concepts might be understood to be 'Burkean', as they share Burke's dialectical preoccupation with the destruction or conservation of existing institutions.