THE METAPHYSICAL CLUB: A STORY OF IDEAS IN AMERICA - Rare Fine Copy of The First Hardcover Edition/First Printing

1st Printing. 546 pages. Published in 2001. The author's ground-breaking account on American philosophy. One of the most valuable books of our time. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. Presents Louis Menand's "The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas In America". His magisterial book about an informal gathering of formidable fugitives: Intellectuals, philosophers, and scholars who met intermittently in Cambridge, Massachusetts over a period of nine months in 1872. With this as the almost incidental context, Louis Menand tells the story of the development of American Pragmatic philosophy, as it emerged from the minds of four of the club's members: Oliver Wendell Holmes, William James, Charles Sanders Peirce, and John Dewey. Never pedantic and often witty, Menand describes the lives and thinking of these great men in a complex, engrossing, and visionary narrative. "Menand stresses the important role of intellectuals in times of chaos, when people's beliefs are put to the test. Suggests an intellectual course for the United States in the 21st century. Not a dry tome for academics, it is instead a wonderfully-told story of ideas that advances by turning the thinkers into characters and bringing them to life. It is difficult to describe what they accomplished though Menand takes a stab at it" (John Miller). Well, according to Menand, they helped bring about academic freedom, cultural pluralism, and foundationally, democracy itself. All of which matter in our deeply divided, ideological age, and given the dominance of a conservative, anti-intellectual intellectual tradition that is singularly American. Being extremists, conservatives are terrified - and react accordingly - of their irrelevance and imminent demise in a world that believes in concrete solutions to real problems, in a pragmatic world-view that makes America competitive and relevant in the Global Age. "They were more responsible than any other group for moving American thought into the modern world. They helped put an end to the idea that beyond the mundane business of making our way as best as we can in a world shot through with contingency, there exists some order, invisible to us, whose logic we transgress at our peril" (Louis Menand). Menand is referring, of course, to our American Religion. An absolute "must-have" title for Louis Menand and philosophy collectors. This title is a great book. This is one of few copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. Please note: Almost ALL copies available online have serious flaws or are in multiple subsequent printings. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A rare copy thus. Winner of The Pulitzer Prize for History in 2002 for "The Metaphysical Club". One of the most brilliant American writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER LOUIS MENAND TITLES IN OUR CATALOG) ISBN 0374199639.…