SOCIAL THOUGHT IN AMERICA

by Morton G. White ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 24, 1949

A thoughtful, scholarly study of the philosophical foundations of 20th century liberal thought. The author, assistant professor of philosophy at Harvard here traces the intellectual pattern of the early 20th century with its beginnings in the late 19th century, a pattern made up of pragmatism, legal realism, institutionalism, economic determinism, the ""new history"" -- these ideas traced through the work of the men responsible for them:- John Dewey, Thorstein Veblen, Justice Holmes, Charles A. Beard, James Harvey Robinson. He feels that the revolt against formalism led to the development of two important positive trends:- historicism (or the use of the past to explain the present) and cultural organicism (the interrelationship of the social science). He shows the relationship of the five men to each other and to other forces, and ends his study with the early 1930's which he feels was close to this era. Of interest primarily to the student.

Pub Date: Oct. 24, 1949

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1949

Categories: NONFICTION