The Ideas That Made America: A Brief History

Before America was a nation it was a set of ideas projected onto the New World by European explorers with centuries of belief and thought in tow. From this foundation of expectation and experience America and American thought grew in turn enriched by the bounties of the Enlightenment the philosophies of liberty and individuality the tenets of religion and the doctrines of republicanism and democracy. Crucial to this development were the thinkers who nurtured it from Thomas Jefferson to Ralpho Waldo Emerson W.E.B. Dubois and Betty Freidan. The Ideas That Made America: A Brief History traces how Americans such as these have addressed the issues and events of their time and place whether this was the Civil War Great Depression or the culture wars of today. Drawing on a variety of discourses from religion philosophy and political thought to cultural criticism social theory and the arts Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen shows how ideas have been major forces in American history driving movements such as transcendentalism Social Darwinism conservatism and postmodernism. In engaging and accessible prose this introduction to American thought considers how notions about freedom and belonging the market and morality and even truth - have commanded generations of Americans and been the cause of fierce contestations.

Alternative names:

• ISBN The Ideas That Made America: A Brief History English