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Cleanth Brooks was the most influential critic among the New Critics. Unlike Ransom and Tate, who considered themselves poets first and critics second, Brooks early initiated the refinement, systematization, and dissemination of New Criticism throughout America's colleges and universities. He proved to be a rigorous and insightful analyst as well as an effective and enduring representive of the School. That the New Criticism was "ahistorical" in its theory and practice has become a commonplace, but it would be more accurate to say that Brooks accepted and worlzed within the view of history held by most of the literary historians of his time. Those who are familiar with Brooks's work know him to be a conscientious and genuinely learned scholar. He probably knew more than any other literary critics about the history of English poetry. Whenever he engaged historical scholars in debate, it was for the purpose of showing them how much they needed each other and how much literature needed them both. He argued that without the foundation of scholarship, criticism could never be more than subjective speculation. It is impossible to understand modem literary criticism apart from Brooks or Brooks apart from modem literary criticism. This thesis reveals that, although Brooks's practical criticism was not itself a historical text, its treatment of works from various periods implied a radically revised history of English poetry.