The American Intellectual Tradition: A Sourcebook Volume II: 1865 to the Present [Paperback]

David A. Hollinger (Editor), Charles Capper (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195137221 | ISBN-13: 978-0195137224 | Publication Date: December 21, 2000 | Edition: 4

The fourth edition of this uniquely comprehensive two-volume anthology has been expanded to connect over a thousand important books, essays, and artistic works with events in American and European intellectual, cultural, and political history. After extensive consultation with instructors who assign these volumes to students, the editors have revised this edition to include more discussions of religion, psychology, social theory, gender, ethnicity, and the role of the United States in the world. This new edition makes readily available substantial selections from the writings of prominent thinkers, ranging chronologically from the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 to the present.
Volume II now offers new selections from Frederick Jackson Turner, Woodrow Wilson, W. E. B. Du Bois, H. L. Mencken, Sidney Hook, David E. Lilienthal, Erik H. Erikson, Hannah Arendt, W. W. Rostow, C. Wright Mills, Noam Chomsky, Ralph Ellison, and Nancy J. Chodorow; and includes writings of Charles Peirce, William Dean Howells, William Graham Sumner, Lester Frank Ward, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Josiah Royce, William James, Henry Adams, George Santayana, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Thorstein Veblen, Jane Addams, John Dewey, Randolph Bourne, Margaret Mead, John Crowe Ransom, Gunnar Myrdal, Clement Greenberg, Reinhold Niebuhr, Lillian Smith, Whittaker Chambers, Daniel Bell, John Courtney Murray, Lionel Trilling, Martin Luther King, Jr., Betty Friedan, Thomas S. Kuhn, Susan Sontag, Malcolm X, Samuel Huntington, Richard Rorty, and Kwame Anthony Appiah.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In The American Intellectual Tradition, 4/e, Hollinger and Capper have critically considered a 'family of disagreements' in American social and political thought. The result is yet another probing volume of sources that illustrates links between ideas, culture, and major trends in American society. Selections from the work of Richard Rorty, Lillian Smith, Randolph Bourne, Sarah Grimk�, and others set the stage for continuing debate about the dynamic and static nature of American social and intellectual life. The authors judiciously suggest other voices who come to different conclusions about the questions considered."--William Banks, University of California, Berkeley

"This sourcebook continues to serve as the cornerstone of my teaching in American thought for undergraduates and graduate students alike. The American Intellectual Tradition provides a comprehensive survey ranging from the Puritan theology to postmodern critical theory. The fourth edition includes updated versions of Hollinger and Capper's superb critical commentaries and comprehensive bibliographies, essays as valuable for specialists trying to keep track of new work in cultural history as for students seeking guidance as they embark on the historical study of ideas."--James T. Kloppenberg, Harvard University

About the Author

David A. Hollinger, Professor of History, University of California, Berkeley. Charles Capper, Professor, Boston University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 4 edition (December 21, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195137221
• ISBN-13: 978-0195137224
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #891,170 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Compendium of American Thought, December 31, 2002

By 

Martin P. McCarthy (North Chili, New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The American Intellectual Tradition: A Sourcebook Volume II: 1865 to the Present (Paperback)

Volume II of Hollinger and Capper's work is as excellent as the first.

Volume II contains contributions from American writers such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Susan Sontag, Malcolm X, Rienhold Niebuhr, Noam Chomsky, John Crowe Ransom, Betty Friedan, John Dewey, W.E.B. DuBois, H.L. Mencken, Jane Addams, Woodrow Wilson, Samuel Huntington, etc.

Volume II traces the developments of race relations in America, the advancement of minorities and women in America, American foreign relations, insight into the state of the South after the Civil War, the effect of transportation revolutions on interstate travel as well as traces the development of Pragmatism, America's contribution to the world of Philosophy from Charles Sanders Peirce to William James to Thomas Kuhn to Richard Rorty.

Simply put, the topical treatment of this work is first rate and the collection of these various works is a creditable contribution to the field of American Intellectual History.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good collection, but needs some context, January 16, 2012

By 

Actinograph - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The American Intellectual Tradition: Volume II: 1865-Present (Paperback)

This book is a solid collection of primary sources on American intellectual history. As such, it should come as no surprise that reading it is by no means easy, and that's just fine. But what's not fine is that the editors don't give you much help. Strictly speaking, it's not necessarily their job to provide context for the sources; all the same, I felt that they could have made more of an effort to do so given the difficulty of the sources. I realize that the point of reading primary sources is to come to your own conclusions, but that's awfully difficult to do if you know little or nothing about the documents' contexts. Hollinger and Capper provide a paragraph or so of context before each reading, but for me, someone whose knowledge of American history isn't particularly deep, this paragraph wasn't enough. This all means that if you're studying American intellectual history, you'll probably need something more than this book, such as more general (text)books and/or a lecture course that can help you with context. If you happen to be stuck in a classroom setting where you have to try to "make sense" of this brick on your own or through discussions with equally novice peers, god help you.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Stuff, September 20, 2011

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MPD - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The American Intellectual Tradition: Volume II: 1865 to the Present (Paperback)

Solid academic overview of American Thought that is actually written thoughtfully enough to warrant keeping it beyond the classroom requirement.