America the Philosophical - Hardcover

Romano, Carlin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679434704 ISBN 13: 9780679434702

Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012

Synopsis

Hardcover. Pub Date: 2012 Pages: 688 Publisher: Knopf A Bold Insightful book that rejects the myth of America the Unphilosophical arguing That America today Towers as the most Philosophical culture in the history of the world an unprecedented Marketplace of truth and argument that far surpasses ancient Greece or any other place one can name. With verve and keen intelligence. Carlin Romano - Pulitzer Prize finalist. award-winning book critic. and professor of philosophy - takes on the widely held belief that ours is an anti-intellectual society. Instead. while providing a richly reported overview of American thought. Romano argues that ordinary Americans see through phony philosophical justifications faster than anyone else. and that the best of our thinkers abandon artificial academic debates for fresh intellectual enterprises. such as cyberphilosophy. Along the way. Romano ...

About this title

Review:

Praise for Carlin Romano's America the Philosophical

"Ambitious. . . . Convincing. . . . An encyclopedic survey of the life of the mind in the United States. . . . Romano is enlightening when he analyzes American intellectual life and illustrates its liveliness."
--The New York Times Book Review

"Is the title a joke? . . . [Romano] argues, brilliantly and at length, that it is not."
--Harvard Magazine

"A high-speed tour of America's big thinkers . . . Romano is a cheerful and exuberant guide."
--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Genuinely exciting and provocative . . . If Romano wanted to discombobulate the traditional landscape of American philosophy, he achieved his goal."
--Umberto Eco

"Admirable . . . Romano writes with the snap of a journalist."
--The Wall Street Journal

"A comprehensive intellectual history from Emerson to Rawls."
--The New Yorker

"Magisterial."
--Broad Street Review

"Romano's remarkable book stands out in terms of ambition, breadth, provocativeness, and, when needed, a delicate touch."
--Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard University, author of Truth, Beauty and Goodness Reframed

"Stimulating . . . graceful . . . exuberant . . . succeeds in filling one's mind with the excitement of ideas duking it out."
--Seattle Times

"Both scholarly and entertaining--learned and stimulating--to an equal and extraordinary degree. America the Philosophical is one of the books of the year . . . A hugely enlightening compendium of intellectual heresy."
--The Buffalo News

"In an age when many debates are high-pitched screeds, how counterintuitive it is to argue that American philosophical thought is booming. But that's trademark Romano . . . Romano turns his subject into a narrative of people brought together by their love of ideas."
--Chicago Tribune

"Romano's grip on his subject is fierce. . . . A tour de force--encyclopedic, entertaining and enlightening."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"With illuminating anecdotes and an addictive prose style, Romano renders complex ideas lucid without sacrificing depth of understanding or his splendid sense of humor . . . breathtaking intellectual range and passion."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Part love letter, part hand grenade, Romano's commentary is sure to delight and infuriate in a way that will underscore its thesis."
--Booklist

"Romano writes so well and unrolls his knowledge in such an unthreatening way that before you know it, you will be thinking philosophically yourself."
--Philip Seib, Director of the Center for Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California

"Romano offers a smart, sophisticated and counter-intuitive comparison of European and American culture. His language is rich and textured, but also contemporary and wry."
--Dallas Morning News

"Romano's voracious intellectual curiosity is impressive--America the Philosophical is dense with amusing anecdotes."
--The Daily

About the Author:

Carlin Romano, Critic-at-Large of The Chronicle of Higher Education and literary critic of The Philadelphia Inquirer for twenty-five years, is Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Ursinus College. His criticism has appeared in The Nation, The New Yorker, The Village Voice, Harper’s, The American Scholar, Salon, The Times Literary Supplement, and many other publications. A former president of the National Book Critics Circle, he was a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Criticism, cited for “bringing new vitality to the classic essay across a formidable array of topics.” He lives in Philadelphia.

About this edition

• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0679434704
• ISBN 13: 9780679434702
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 688