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Existential America

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George Cotkin has written a fascinating history of the existential themes and concerns that have run throughout the course of American intellectual history.

Drawing from sources ranging not only from philosophy and religion but from literature, art, photography, theater and, surprisingly, even politics and popular social criticism, Cotkin reveals that, far from being merely a European concern, existentialism was already deeply embedded within the American psyche by the time Sartre visited the U.S. in the 1940s. Indeed, existential concerns informed the works of American pragmatist philosopher William James, as well as Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes (who are also both featured in Louis Menand's excellent work The Metaphysical Club) in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Cotkin himself locates the beginnings of our own existentialist tradition in the Calvinist tradition and the psychic ravages experienced by the nation as a result of its experiences with the Civil War, slavery, and the mass annihilation of Native Americans, and daily grind associated with life in the 1800s.

Despite our reputation for liberal optimism, nineteenth century American culture was deeply steeped in moral contradiction and death and the resulting anguish is evidenced in the works by many early American writers such as Herman Melville, the so-called American Dostoyevsky.

Hence, when Kierkegaard was finally translated into English in the 1940s, the American academic audience was receptive and the impact was immediate, particularly in religious and social criticism circles. Interestingly enough, Sartre and Beauvoir had only limited influence in the 1940s and `50s in large part due to their leftwing politics, which alienated the staunchly anti-communist New York intellectuals.

In a systematic yet exciting fashion, Cotkin traces the chronology of European existentialist influence upon American thinkers, beginning with Kierkegaard on through Sartre, Camus, Beauvoir, and Heidegger on American thinkers, artists, and activists.

The breadth of Cotkin's analysis is amazing.

Novelists Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, and writer Norman Mailer are featured at length, with briefer treatments of works by Herman Melville, Stephen Crane, Dorothy Sayers, and William March (The Bad Seed), and hardboiled detection fiction writers such as James M. Cain (whose work inspired Camus' The Stranger), and Dashiell Hammett.

In addition, novelist and dramatist Thornton Wilder are given broader treatment, while the works of playwrights Eugene O'Neill, Samuel Beckett, and poets W.H. Auden, Emily Dickinson are briefly discussed or mentioned in passing, as is Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra.

Especially delightful are Cotkin's discussions of painters Edward Hopper, Mark Rothko, photographer Robert Frank (whose works appeared in the famous Family of Man exhibition), and art critic Harold Rosenberg's analyses of the American Action Painters, including Jackson Pollock. Cotkin also offers brief analyses of films such as The Graduate, Cool Hand Luke, noir-classic D.O.A., as well as the work of director Woody Allen.

There are some interesting surprises as well. It was clergyman Walter Lowrie, we're told, who helped popularize the newly translated Kierkegaard in the 1930s, a move that shaped American political discourse and religious thought from the 1930s on through the post WWII era.

Some of the leading public figures of the 1930s, `40s and `50s were influenced by Kierkegaard. Leading religious thinker and moralist Reinhold Niebuhr is discussed at length, as are cultural critic Walter Lippman, political commentator and founder of Americans for Democratic Action Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., and conservative thinker and communist apostate Whittaker Chambers.

Much briefer treatments are given to cultural critics Joseph Wood Krutch, social philosopher Will Herberg and mention is made of sociologists C. Wright Mills (The Power Elite, White Collar) and David Reisman (The Lonely Crowd), theologian Paul Tillich, and existentialist psychologists Rollo May and Erich Fromm

Finally, activists Tom Hayden, Robert Moses, and Betty Friedan are discussed at length in addition to philosophers William Barrett, Walter Kaufman, Hazel E. Barnes (Sartre's original translator).

Although his treatment of many of the figures mentioned above is often brief, it is pointed. His short discussion of Melville was just enough to inspire me to read Moby Dick and Bartelby the Scrivener.

In sum, Existential America is an excellent survey of the trajectory of existentialist thought in the U.S. Although hardcore philosophers are likely to wish for more in depth philosophical analysis of the thinkers, the book's strength lies in its historical analysis. All in all, Existential America is an engrossing and highly entertaining read.

Cotkin has done a wonderful job of taking a very complex subject (one which seems to attract bad writers as well) and turning it into a good story. Best of all: He writes in jargon-free English. Perfect for a Senior seminar in American intellectual history. How was existentialism received in America? Read the book.