American Labyrinth : : Intellectual History for Complicated Times / / ed. by Andrew Hartman, Raymond Haberski.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Complete eBook-Package 2018
• MitwirkendeR: Burgin, Angus,; Cameron, Christopher,; Flores, Ruben,; Haberski, Raymond,; Hartman, Andrew,; Healan Gaston, K.,; Holloway, Jonathan,; Jewett, Andrew,; Kittelstrom, Amy,; L. Alpers, Benjamin,; Lacy, Tim,; Livingston, James,; M. Schultz, Kevin,; Mattson, Kevin,; McKnight Nichols, Christopher,; Mehlman Petrzela, Natalia,; Sehat, David,; Szefel, Lisa,; Wickberg, Daniel,
• HerausgeberIn: Haberski, Raymond,; Hartman, Andrew,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2018]; ©2018
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (348 p.) :; 2 b&w halftones, 3 charts

American Labyrinth contains a stimulating and useful collection of essays by historians reflecting on American intellectual history. As a whole, the book convinces the reader that the field of intellectual history is enjoying a renaissance. The book will be especially prized by intellectual historians, but historians of many different persuasions will find these essays rewarding too.―ChoiceIntellectual history has never been more relevant and more important to public life in the United States. In complicated and confounding times, people look for the principles that drive action and the foundations that support national ideals. American Labyrinth demonstrates the power of intellectual history to illuminate our public life and examine our ideological assumptions.This volume of essays brings together 19 influential intellectual historians to contribute original thoughts on topics of widespread interest. Raymond Haberski Jr. and Andrew Hartman asked a group of nimble, sharp scholars to respond to a simple question: How might the resources of intellectual history help shed light on contemporary issues with historical resonance? The answers—all rigorous, original, and challenging—are as eclectic in approach and temperament as the authors are different in their interests and methods. Taken together, the essays of American Labyrinth illustrate how intellectual historians, operating in many different registers at once and ranging from the theoretical to the political, can provide telling insights for understanding a public sphere fraught with conflict.In order to understand why people are ready to fight over cultural symbols and political positions we must have insight into how ideas organize, enliven, and define our lives. Ultimately, as Haberski and Hartman show in this volume, the best route through our contemporary American labyrinth is the path that traces our practical and lived ideas.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction. INTELLECTUAL HISTORY FOR COMPLICATED TIMES -- Section I. MAPPING AMERICAN IDEAS -- 1. WINGSPREAD: So What? -- 2. ON LEGAL FUNDAMENTALISM -- 3. FREEDOM’S JUST ANOTHER WORD? The Intellectual Trajectories of the 1960s -- Section II. IDEAS AND AMERICAN IDENTITIES -- 4. PHILOSOPHY VS. PHILOSOPHERS A Problem in American Intellectual History -- 5. THE PRICE OF RECOGNITION Race and the Making of the Modern University -- 6. THANKS, GENDER! An Intellectual History of the Gym -- 7. PARALLEL EMPIRES Transnationalism and Intellectual History in the Western Hemisphere -- Section III. DANGEROUS IDEAS -- 8. TOWARD A NEW, OLD LIBERAL IMAGINATION From Obama to Niebuhr and Back Again -- 9. AGAINST THE LIBERAL TRADITION An Intellectual History of the American Left -- 10. FROM “TALL IDEAS DANCING” TO TRUMP’S TWITTER RANTING Reckoning the Intellectual History of Conservatism -- 11. THE REINVENTION OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP -- Section IV. CONTESTED IDEAS -- 12. WAR AND AMERICAN THOUGHT Finding a Nation through Killing and Dying -- 13. UNITED STATES IN THE WORLD The Significance of an Isolationist Tradition -- 14. REINSCRIBING RELIGIOUS AUTHENTICITY Religion, Secularism, and the Perspectival Character of Intellectual History -- 15. “THE ENTIRE THING WAS A FRAUD” Christianity, Freethought, and African American Culture -- Section V. IDEAS AND CONSEQUENCES -- 16. AGAINST AND BEYOND HOFSTADTER Revising the Study of Anti-intellectualism -- 17. CULTURE AS INTELLECTUAL HISTORY Broadening a Field of Study in the Wake of the Cultural Turn -- 1.8 ON THE POLITICS OF KNOWLEDGE Science, Conflict, Power -- CONCLUSION. The Idea of Historical Context and the Intellectual Historian -- Contributors -- Acknowledgments -- Index