William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism [Paperback]

Robert D. Richardson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 14, 2007

Pivotal member of the Metaphysical Club, author of The Varieties of Religious Experience, older brother of extraordinary siblings Henry and Alice, the remarkable William James put an indelible stamp on psychology, philosophy, teaching, and religion -- on modernism itself. In this thought-provoking and moving biography, James emerges as an immensely complex and fascinating man. Through passionate scholarship, Robert D. Richardson illuminates James’s life and hugely influential works: the Varieties, Principles of Psychology, Talks to Teachers, and Pragmatism. At last, in this definitive work William James is given his due as a man whose influence resonates in innumerable areas of modern life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. [Signature]Reviewed by Justin KaplanIn William James, Robert D. Richardson, biographer of Thoreau and Emerson, has chosen as his subject one of the most radiant of American lives. Author, philosopher, scientist, psychologist, longtime Harvard professor, James (1842–1910) had set out to be a painter, but discouraged from this by his father, instead followed a wandering but ultimately consistent career path. He trained as a medical doctor but never practiced medicine; served as a naturalist and accompanied Louis Agassiz on an expedition to the upper reaches of the Amazon; broke new ground as a physiologist and psychologist; studied religion and psychic phenomena; lectured extensively; and wrote three classic books, Principles of Psychology, The Varieties of Religious Experience and Pragmatism. Richardson's book opens in April 1906, with the 64-year-old James, then a visiting professor at Stanford, shaken from his bed by the 48-second shock of the San Francisco earthquake. His immediate response typified his lifelong openness to experience and risk taking (including, we're told, personal encounters with previously untested drugs and gases). Instead of fear he experienced "glee," "admiration," "delight" and an exhilarating sense of "welcome." For James, Richardson writes, this was a moment of "unhesitating, fierce, joyful embrace of the awful force of nature... of contact with elemental reality." William James was the dutiful but often resistant son of a mercurial Swedenborgian philosopher who, on either whim or principled decision but always supported by more than ample money, moved the members of his large family from place to place on both sides of the Atlantic, virtually transforming them into a tribe of nomads and hotel children. William's sister was the diarist Alice, fully as remarkable but not so publicly fulfilled as her famous elder siblings. William and the novelist Henry coexisted on often competitive but ultimately affectionate terms. One of the most poignant of the 32 pages of illustrations shows the brothers, both in their 60s, standing side by side, with William's arm around the younger Henry's shoulder in a gesture of protection and intimacy. Previous biographers of William James have focused on his thought and character, others on the events of his life, which was often marked by doubt, depression and physical ailments. But no one has managed, as Richardson does so brilliantly, to intertwine the two and account for each with equal authority, penetration and narrative coherence. James's progression from the gently idealizing intellectual climate of Ralph Waldo Emerson to what Richardson calls "the maelstrom of American modernism" makes for a gripping and often inspiring story of intellectual and spiritual adventure. Richardson's enthusiasm for what he calls "the matchless incandescent spirit" of William James is contagious. (Nov. 9)Justin Kaplan is the author of When the Astors Owned New York (Viking, 2006).
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* "All that the human heart wants," declared William James, "is its chance." In a biography of exceptional insight, Richardson recounts how James seized his historic chance to establish American psychology as a scientific pursuit freed from metaphysical encumbrance. Scholars and general readers alike will value the lucid narrative revealing how James erased the traditional boundary between thought and thinker, defying both Platonic idealism and materialistic determinism as he probed the powers of the human will to shape the universe it experiences. Richardson investigates with particular care James' foray into the complex psychology of belief in The Varieties of Religious Experience, detailing how James affirmed the human capacity for faith as a prerequisite for fruitful action. Readers thus see how James harmonized religious hope with his own formulation of pragmatism as the dynamic process that defines modernity. Readers visit the academic settings in which James worked, alternately clashing and collaborating with Harvard titans such as Royce and Santayana. But readers also see how fiercely the great psychologist resisted lecture-room formulas in his quest for direct experience. And in that quest, the vicissitudes he shared with his wife, close friends, and family counted--as Richardson shows--for more than the doctrines of theoreticians. A landmark study, certain to endure. Bryce Christensen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; Reprint edition (September 14, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618919899
• ISBN-13: 978-0618919895
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #143,606 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #72 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Professionals & Academics > Philosophers

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

94 of 97 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece November 9, 2006

By David H. Peterzell

Format:Hardcover

"When a thing is new, people say: 'It is not true'.
Later, when its truth becomes obvious, they say: 'It's not important.'
Finally, when its importance cannot be denied, they say 'Anyway, it's not new.'"
William James

Well, I admit to being completely fascinated with great early experimental psychologists like William James and Gustav Fechner. While modern psychology honors these thinkers, they usually neglect to look deeply into their great experimental and non-experimental ideas.

I hope that this remarkable and important book gets the attention it deserves, and I hope that my generation will discover the brilliance of William James. Richardson has brought James, his world, and his genius to life, along with the fascinating origins of modern psychological and metaphysical thought. Today, psychological science, philosophy, and the science of consciousness have come full circle, so James is as relevant today as 100 years ago.

In the preface of "William James; In the Maelstrom of American Modernism," Robert D. Richardson states that "This is an intellectual biography of William James. That is to say, it seeks to understand his life through his work, not the other way around. It is primarily narrative, aiming more to present his life than to analyze or explain it." With this humble thesis statement, Richardson understates one of the crowning achievements of his book. The book succeeds in portraying James' multifaceted, vibrant, and strong personality, thus explaining the great and passionate ideas that emanated from this source.

Toward the end of the book (p. 473; California Dreaming), Richardson discusses James' 4-part personality, referring to Barton Perry's (1935) analysis of James.... "In some intricate way, James appears to have been, at bottom, both healthy-minded and a sick soul, both tender and tough-minded. Ralph Barton Perry, James' student and biographer, closes his splendid account by identifying four William Jameses. There was first of all `the neurasthenic James.' Then there was `the radiant James, vivid, gay, loving, compassionate, and sensitive.' To this Perry adds a third James, for whom he has no easy label but who might be considered as the conditional James or the ever-not-quite James, whose important qualities of live are `active tension, uncertainty, predictability, extemporized adaptation, risk, change, anarchy, unpretentiousness, and naturalness." The fourth James, Perry says, was "the James of experience and discipline ... the man of the world.' Cosmopolitan James, perhaps." I was struck by the fact that, while Perry's important work discussed the personalities, it was Richardson who has presented these personalities with a vividness that implies a deep analysis and understanding of James' psyche. "...The fundamental condition of his life was, now [at sixty] and always, torn-to-pieces-hood. But the pieces were never just thrown to the winds. They remained loosely if oddly clumped together, never completely unified, but all on the same shelf. Perhaps Leo Stein, brother of Gertrude, said it best: `The world which [William James] perceived was a multitudinous one. He never lost the sense of the thing, and yet never lost himself in it. So he became the richest interpreter of that of which he was so rich a part." Richardson's deep analysis of James emerges throughout the book.

Richardson's empathy with James - his ability see and think as James once did - is a second crowning achievement of this book. Like many biographers, Richardson has read what James wrote and said, including letters and other correspondences. But Richardson has made a point to read what James read, to fully understand the ideas that captured James' imagination. Furthermore, he has written biographies of Emerson and Thoreau, two great authors who influenced James significantly.

Perhaps a third, and related, crowning achievement of this book is its ability to put James' ideas in historical context; to link the ideas to themes that pervaded the 19th and 20th centuries. For instance, "He took as his starting point the feeling with which everyone is familiar: `Most of us feel as if we lived habitually with a sort of cloud weighing on us, below our highest notch of clearness in discernment, sureness in reasoning, or firmness in deciding. Compared to what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fires are damped, our drafts are checked,' Whatever this subject should be called in clinical psychology - James called it dynamogenics - it is the long-standing American interest in awakening to new life and new power, the great theme of Thoreau and Emerson and whitman, the great theme too of Jonathan Edwards, now carried to the new American century by William James." (p. 489)

I had hoped to read about James' interactions with some of his great students (e.g., Thorndike, who conducted his famous puzzle-box experiments in James' house). But I found much of what I hoped for. I was especially interested in reading about James' interpretations of Gustav Fechner's work. Although James seems to have dismissed Fechner's psychophysical laws as "too mechanical" (along with laws of thermodynamics, among other things), his fascination with Fechner's ideas is explained toward the end of the book.

There are some other recent sources on James that are worth noting. To be sure, James' deceptively stern visage can be found in modern books on the history of psychology, and these books often include a brief summary of James' work and ideas. Gerald Myers (1986) offers "William James: His life and thought" is another relatively recent "must read." Take a look at Emory University's online resources featuring James. You'll find plenty of materials, including quite a few interesting articles and pictures (e.g., Albert Bandura on James's stay at Stanford). Ken Wilber (of Integral Psychology fame) and B. Alan Wallace (Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies; Mind and Life Institute) have written and spoken extensively in recent years about James' metaphysical ideas. Wallace has just published a book entitled "Contemplative Science" which features James prominently.

So... I highly recommend this intellectual biography of William James. I loved this book! Read more ›

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful November 21, 2006

By meadowreader

Format:Hardcover

This is a wonderfully written biography of a giant in American intellectual history, a book (and a life) that really can't be adequately summarized in a short review. Richardson has a comprehensive view of the historical era in which William James emerged, having previously published biographies of Emerson and Thoreau. The book is filled with interesting historical tidbits, such as the fact that Harvard had no separate Psychology Department until 1934, and a sketch of the miserable state of medical education in the late 19th Century, when not even a high school diploma was required. We see the brilliant Charles Peirce unable to make a living, and finally rescued by James and other of his friends from near starvation. Richardson frequently gives us the current value of dollar amounts from the earlier time, which adds valuable perspective. It is worth knowing that James's $5,000 Harvard salary, an amount that sounds puny, was the equivalent of $100,000 today.

William James was a famously late bloomer, but during that casting-about time he was hardly idle. He read very widely, was a talented artist, traveled constantly (including up the Amazon with Agassiz), became fluent in French and German, and got an MD degree among much else. His interest and training in physiology made him sensitive to the continuities between animals and human beings, and receptive to Darwin's evolutionary theory. But he also put great emphasis on the discontinuities; the example of a dog listening to a symphony was a favorite analogy to suggest the limits of our possible human understanding of the universe.

When William James died from heart failure in his late 60s, it was said that he had literally worn himself out. Santayana described James's personal vitality as "similar to nobody else...." European travel, hiking and mountain climbing, experimenting with mysticism and psychoactive drugs, forming crushes on young women (to his wife's dismay), taking full teaching loads and large classes at Harvard, churning out articles and books, giving lectures to enthusiastic public audiences -- just reading about this man's doings is enough to make any normal person feel like a slacker of the worst kind. James lived in the world as an intensely active, curious, fully engaged participant; he somehow even managed to be in Palo Alto when the San Francisco earthquake hit. His intermittant bouts of ill health make it all that much more remarkable.

James was a psychologist, philosopher, and humanist. His psychology was inclusive, expansive, open-ended, and rejecting of all orthodoxies or closures of subject matter or method. For James, psychology included every possibility of human action and consciousness. The luminaries of the time that he knew, corresponded with, or met is far too long to reproduce. But it was an eclectic group, from Mach to Bergson, Jung to Russell, Chesterton to Leonora Piper, the famous medium. The writer Henry James was, of course, his younger brother.

If there was one overriding concern in James's intellectual history, it was his fascination with religion and the possibility of realms of human experience that are not captured by logic and empirical observation, experiences that come as feelings and hints, but which seem impossible to nail down scientifically. In relation to the universe, we are, he thought, perhaps like that dog who hears the symphony but who lacks the aesthetic sensibility to fathom its meaning. Although he said he could not speak from his own experience (it's unclear whether he ever had any first-hand religious experience), James focused on religion as personal experience, not as a social institution or body of dogma. He was intensely interested in the phenomenon of religious conversion, by which an individual's life was suddenly altered as through a kind of re-birth. The approach developed by Alcoholics Anonymous was inspired by James's descriptions of the life-changing effects of religious conversion. (James was always interested in practical applications; for example, his series of lectures for teachers was highly influential in his day.)

James is most identified today with Pragmatism, a doctrine he set out in the last decade of his life. Among philosophers, truth is usually seen as a matter of justification that flows from first principles of some kind. For James, all such accounts of truth smack of an argument from design, a vast over-emphasis on the importance of origins. James's Pragmatism, in contrast, is Darwinian: truth will show itself as it is tested in practice, and where it came from is a matter of indifference. If the dog won't hunt, who cares about its pedigree? That view was later common among philosophers of science, including Popper and, in its most extreme form, Feyerabend.

Pragmatism can be seen as one front in James's long fight against the neo-Hegelian idealists, like Royce and Bradley, with their posited Absolute, a war of liberation against the "imperial absolutists" and their rationalistic systems. And James did not exempt religion from the pragmatic test, arguing that people want both science and religion, and they want both for the desirable results they provide in their everyday lives. Thus James argued for the utility of the pragmatic approach itself, and for that reason he dedicated his book on the subject to the great Utilitarian, John Stuart Mill.

An exemplary life, recounted in an exemplary biography. Highest recommendation. Read more ›

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An Exceptional Biography of William James January 9, 2007

By Ronald H. Clark VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

William James (1842-1910) made major contributions in the areas of philosophy, psychology, and the study of religion--yet we don't hear too much about him these days. Of course, the discussion of his more famous brother, Henry James, the novelist, is on-going. This book (along with Linda Simon's earlier "Genuine Reality: A Life of WJ") should do much to reintroduce this astoundingly talented figure to the current generation.
The author previously produced probably the definitive studies of Emerson and Thoreau. He spent a decade on this volume, and its shows. His approach is to understand James' "life through his work, not the other way around." What this means is that the book continually manifests a dual focus: WJ's life and WJ's intellectual pursuits and writings. The analysis is extremely detailed and comprehensive, the research phenomenal--and given the nearly 600 pages of text and notes, Richardson obviously was in no hurry to tell WJ's story.

However, a prospective reader should be warned that James dealt with and developed a number of complex and challenging ideas and areas. And Richardson is just as determined to analyze these topics as he is to do justice to WJ's life. Or, put differently, unless the reader is well versed in this subject matter, it can be difficult going at times. However, given the author's clarity of exposition, I found it easy to skim through these difficult passages and concentrate on the areas more familiar to me, and still reap the full benefits of Richardson's insights. So this fine book is there to provide as much detail and depth as to WJ's professional interests and writings as the reader is desirous of probing. In short, it is all there in this one book, for those who really want to get into WJ (including his interest in spiritualism).... I found it helpful to keep handy the outstanding two volume Library of America collection of WJ's writings. A truly monumental contribution by Richardson and absolute "must reading" for anyone seriously interested in William James. Read more ›