From the medieval worldview to the modern outlook, this work presents a sweeping intellectual history in one volume. The emphasis is on ideas in their historical setting, on how modes of thought emerge, grow, influence and react to one another, and die. The result is a grand synthesis of the main currents in western thought, bringing together religion, philosophy, politics, science, economics, literature and the arts, and the social and behavioral sciences- all the diverse systems man has devised in his effort to understand, interpret, and shape human experience.
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Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Randall was one of the great American minds of the 20th century, and this was his classic textbook written for Columbia's contemporary civilization course. First published in 1926 and last revised in 1940, this is another book that Gress sees as an example of the Grand Narrative, but as he points out, it was "brilliantly learned and well written." It thus still serves as a solid introduction to the history of ideas for undergraduates and adults.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
About the Author
John Herman Randall, Jr., is Frederick J. E. Woodbridge Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Columbia University. He is the author of many works in philosophy and intellectual history, among them Aristotle, The Career of Philosophy, Vols. I and II, How Philosophy Uses its Past, Nature and Historical Experience and Philosophy After Darwin: Chapters for The Career of Philosophy, Volume III, and Other Essays, all published by Columbia University Press.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An erudite and insightful survey of Eurocentric philosophy,
By T. Osburn (Indianapolis, IN USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Making of the Modern Mind: A Survey of the Intellectual Background of the Present Age (Paperback)
Randall's book, written in 1940 as a college survey textbook, is a remarkable Eurocentric history, not only for its breadth of knowledge and depth of analysis. By freely expressing his opinions, the author enlivens the narrative, but his opinions are so judicious and even-handed that he never alienates the reader. He turns the history that I learned in school upside-down; here there are no warriors or kings to leave their mark, but rather the philosophers and the scientists create new vistas, and those creations that further the enrichment of the pre-WW II middle class endure. A warning: Randall presupposes in the reader a liberal familiarity with history, philosophy, and literature that probably very few college students of the 1990s have attained. A bonus of the book, though, is the mellifluous prose and the exquisite analogies, the best that I've read in a history since Gibbon. For example, the Old Testament "is a stern and austere code, more ready to burst into the flame of indignation than the warm glow of love." (page 42)
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
students review of a classic lesson,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Making of the Modern Mind: A Survey of the Intellectual Background of the Present Age (Paperback)
A wonderfully eloquant review of the "modern" mind's evolution from its barbarous Judeo-Christian beginnings up until the industrial age. Makes powerful arguments for science's positive efffects upon man(as well as being historically and technically acurate), as well as questioning the negative effect it has had on man's morals and reason. A good read for someone out there lost amidst the multimedia education of hyperactive universities, just looking for a articulate lesson in man's chaotic growth. If you can find the time to read all seven hundred pages, do so at all costs.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For those who would like to know how we got to where we are.,
By
This review is from: The Making of the Modern Mind: A Survey of the Intellectual Background of the Present Age (Paperback)
Amazing! There's no better way to describe it. Of the five books composing this volume, four are absolutely superb. The fifth misses only in the sense that it was written 60 years ago. Were Randall writing today, that part would be much modified and probably expanded into a sixth book.
There are prerequisites for reading this work, the main one being considerable knowledge of Western History from the 13th Century onwards. For those who have that knowledge already, then this book is a marvelous adventure--thoughful, insightful and truly an intriguing explanation for why we are what we are today.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
IT is customary to regard the course of history as a great river, with its source in some small rivulet of the distant past, taking its rise on the plains of Asia, and flowing slowly down through the ages, gathering water from new tributaries on the way, until finally in our own days it broadens majestically over the whole world. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
corporative state Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Middle Ages, John Dewey, Catholic Church, Adam Smith, City of God, Herbert Spencer, Labour Party, Saint Francis, Bertrand Russell, Country House, Francis Bacon, French Revolution, New Deal, John Locke, George Santayana, Roman Empire, Thomas Aquinas, Old Testament, Anatole France, Council of Trent, Karl Marx, Saint Thomas, Auguste Comte, Isaac Newton, James Mill New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
IT is customary to regard the course of history as a great river, with its source in some small rivulet of the distant past, taking its rise on the plains of Asia, and flowing slowly down through the ages, gathering water from new tributaries on the way, until finally in our own days it broadens majestically over the whole world. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
corporative state Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Middle Ages, John Dewey, Catholic Church, Adam Smith, City of God, Herbert Spencer, Labour Party, Saint Francis, Bertrand Russell, Country House, Francis Bacon, French Revolution, New Deal, John Locke, George Santayana, Roman Empire, Thomas Aquinas, Old Testament, Anatole France, Council of Trent, Karl Marx, Saint Thomas, Auguste Comte, Isaac Newton, James Mill New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 151
books:
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9
books
cite this book:
See all 9 books citing this book
- Reconstruction in Philosophy by John Dewey on 11 pages
- City of God (Concerning the City of God Against the Pagans) (Pelican Classics) by Augustine of Hippo on 5 pages
- Democracy And Education by John Dewey on 4 pages
- Three philosophical poets: Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe (Harvard studies in comparative literature) by George Santayana on 4 pages
- The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution (Notable American Authors) by Roger Williams on page 372, page 385, and page 386
See all 151 books this book cites
- Opportunity: Optimizing Life's Chances by Donald Morris on 4 pages
- Einstein and Our World, Second Edition (Control of Nature) by David C. Cassidy in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- God and Reason in the Middle Ages by Edward Grant on page 286, and Back Matter
- Making Magic: Religion, Magic, and Science in the Modern World (Reflection and Theory in the Study of Religion) by Randall Styers in Back Matter
- The Battleground of the Curriculum: Liberal Education and American Experience by W. B. Carnochan in Back Matter
See all 9 books citing this book
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