This project addresses the concept of force in Romantic and Victorian literature, science and politics. I examine literary and non-literary forms of writing—from novels and lyric poetry to new forms of war journalism and statistical writing—that reconceived ‘rhetorical force’ in reaction to the era’s ongoing military conflicts at home and abroad. Experimenting with new persuasive practices, these genres remade the classical “arts of persuasion” for a modern era of war, reform and empire.