Chapters include: In Italy, In German, In Poland and Austria, in Lithuania, The Romantic Movement, The Emancipation Movement, The Conflict with Rabbinism, Reformers and Conservatives, The National Progressive Movement, The Contributors to Ha-Shahar, The Novels of Smolenskin, and Contemporaneous Literature. From the Translator's Note: "The modern chapter in the history of Hebrew literature herewith presented to English readers was written by Dr. Nahum Slouschz as his thesis for the doctorate at the University of Paris, and published in book form in 1902. A few years later (1906-1907), the author himself put his Essay into Hebrew, and it was brought out as a publication of the _Tushiyah_, under the title _Korot ha-Safrut ha-'Ibrit ha-Hadashah_. The Hebrew is not, however, a mere translation of the French book. The material in the latter was revised and extended, and the presentation was considerably changed, in view of the different attitude toward the subject naturally taken by Hebrew readers, as compared with a Western public, Jewish or non-Jewish."