American Intellectual History: A Very Short Introduction

Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen

Aug 2021 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Suzie Althens

About this audiobook

Long before the United States was a nation, it was a set of ideas, projected onto the New World by European explorers with centuries of belief and thought in tow. From this foundation of expectation and experience, America and American thought grew in turn, enriched by the bounties of the Enlightenment, the philosophies of liberty and individuality, the tenets of religion, and the doctrines of republicanism and democracy. Crucial to this development were the thinkers who nurtured it, from Thomas Jefferson to Ralph Waldo Emerson, W. E. B. Du Bois to Jane Addams, and Betty Friedan to Richard Rorty. This addition to Oxford's Very Short Introductions series traces how Americans have addressed the issues and events of their time and place, whether it is the Civil War, the Great Depression, or the culture wars of today. Spanning a variety of disciplines, from religion, philosophy, and political thought, to cultural criticism, social theory, and the arts, Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen shows how ideas have been major forces in American history, driving movements such as transcendentalism, Social Darwinism, conservatism, and postmodernism.

About the author

Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen is Merle Curti Associate Professor and Vilas-Borghesi Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she teaches US intellectual and cultural history. She is the author of the prize-wining American Nietzsche: A History of an Icon and His Ideas.

Suzie Althens records from her professional studio in Alaska, near the beautiful Matanuska Glacier. She narrates regularly for major publishers and specializes in audiobooks and e-learning.