Makers of American Thought: An Introduction to Seven American Writers - Softcover

Ross, Ralph

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816667179 ISBN 13: 9780816667178

Publisher: University of Minnesota Press, 1974

Synopsis

Makers of American Thought was first published in 1974.Through critical introductions to seven important American thinkers and critics, this book presents a significant view of the cultural history of the nation in the late nineteenth and early and mid-twentieth centuries. The writers who are discussed and the authors of the chapters on each of them are “Henry Adams” by Louis Auchincloss, “William James” by Gay Wilson Allen, “H.L. Mencken” by Philip Wagner, “Randolph Bourne” by Sherman Paul, “Van Wyck Brooks” by William Wasserstrom, “Kenneth Burke” by Merle E. Brown, and “Reinhold Niebuhr” by Nathan A. Scott, Jr. Like the other volumes in the Minnesota Library on American Writers, this volume is based on a collection of pamphlets from the series of University of Minnesota Pamphlets on American Writers.In a perceptive introduction to the volume, Professor Ross comments on the mainstreams of thought that characterized this country during its coming of age after the Civil War. He contrasts the ebullience of those who looked forward with the despair of those who looked back, as represented, respectively, by William James and Henry Adams. “The similarity of their backgrounds obscures the enormous difference between them,” he writes. “The differences are guideposts in American thought.” After considering the contributions and influences of the other writers discussed in the book Professor Ross concludes: “Even those American thinkers whose concerns are essentially literary and rhetorical are likely to reveal the social or philosophical attitude of James or Adams in their choice of words.”

About this title

About the Author

Ralph Ross was the Hartley Burr Alexander Professor of Humanities and a professor of philosophy at Scripps College, a member of the Claremont Colleges.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
• Publication date: 1974
• ISBN 10: 0816667179
• ISBN 13: 9780816667178
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 308