AMERICAN BLOODS

An account of American ideology through the lens of an extraordinary family.

In his latest, Kaag, author of American Philosophy and Hiking With Nietzsche, tracks the lives and influence of members of the Blood family, beginning in the 17th century and extending to the dawn of the 20th century. Though none of them is especially famous in their own right, each family member played a role in seminal historical events. Taken together, their stories provide an original and revealing perspective on the evolution of American ideals over several centuries. “The Blood brothers,” writes Kaag, “belonged to one of America’s first and most expansive pioneer families, which explored, and laid claim to, the frontiers—geographic, political, intellectual, and spiritual—that became the very core of the nation.” The author emphasizes that a consistent element of the Bloods’ character was their commitment to “wildness,” a restless, asocial bent that makes them uncanny representatives of a long-standing American ethic. One fascinating element is Kaag’s discussion of the intersections of the Bloods with iconic figures—including Emerson, Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, and William James—each of whom seems to have been profoundly impacted by the encounters. Three Bloods in particular stand out in Kaag’s rich and incisive descriptions: the hermetic astronomer Perez Blood, who “helped Thoreau define his conception of human freedom”; the hard-charging Aretas Blood, who rose from poverty to establish a business empire; and the “seer-mystic” Benjamin Paul Blood, who pioneered the use of psychedelics for intellectual growth. Some of the author’s phrasing is hackneyed—“This Blood lived his short life like there was no tomorrow”—and his openness to entertaining the relevance of “astrological forces” and “mystical significance” can be distracting. Overall, though, Kaag provides a lively and insightful examination of his remarkable subjects.