UMass Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press

Appropriations of Emerson, 1880-1950

Book Jacket: "Individualism and Its Discontents" by C.E. Mitchell

Charles E. Mitchell

A fresh look at the intellectual legacy of an American cultural icon

The work of Ralph Waldo Emerson has long been synonymous with the American ideals of self-reliance and individualism. Like those ideals, it has come to mean different things, at different times, to different people. Emerson has been identified as the source of both the best and the worst in the American intellectual tradition, his authority invoked by back-to-the-landers and industrial capitalists, the philosopher Nietzsche as well as the promoters of Nike footwear.

This book explores the intertwined history of Emerson and individualism. Charles E. Mitchell begins by examining those who regarded Emersonian individualism with ambivalence or hostility, focusing on the comments of such diverse figures as Henry James, Sr., Oliver Wendell Holmes, Van Wyck Brooks, and H. L. Mencken. He then offers an alternative view as reflected in the work of William James, John Dewey, W.E.B. Du Bois, and William Carlos Williams. Each of these figures embraced Emerson's claim for the sanctity of the individual and wove it into a social vision that sought to reconcile the paradox at the heart of American life: a simultaneous devotion to the community and the individual, tradition and innovation, order and freedom.

While indirectly answering Emerson's more fervent critics, James, Dewey, Du Bois, and Williams also constructed a vibrant tradition of their own, one that offers guidance as Americans continue to struggle with these competing claims.

"A well-written and compelling analysis. . . . Mitchell illuminates not only Emersonian philosophy but also major strands in American intellectual history. His study stands as a solid, thoughtful contribution to scholarship that should appeal to Americanists in the fields of literature, philosophy, and cultural history."

David S. Reynolds, author of Beneath the American Renaissance:
The Subversive Imagination in the Age of Emerson and Melville

Charles E. Mitchell is assistant professor of American studies at Elmira College.

American Studies / Intellectual History
256 pp.
LC 96-39859
$40.00s cloth, ISBN 1-55849-073-6
1997

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