Buy this book on-line

Menand, Louis : American Studies

Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York City, NY, 2002

ISBN 0374104344

First Edition / First Printing. As New in As New Dust Jacket. 320 pages. The author's second collection of essays. Now considered a contemporary classic. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now scarce. Presents Louis Menand's "American Studies". Collects some of his most perceptive, clear-eyed, and incisive pieces, which originally appeared in The New Yorker Magazine and The New York Review of Books. Reaffirms Louis Menand's position as the preeminent contemporary historian of American intellectual life. "Intellectual" is a bad word in American politics, but it is one of the underlying, "bedrock" concepts of American culture, flaws and all. The essays on William James and Oliver Wendell Holmes expand on Pragmatic philosophy, as explored in Menand's masterpiece, "The Metaphysical Club". "T. S. Eliot and the Jews" is on the poet's controversial anti-Semitism, a debate that rages to this day. Assessments of Richard Wright, Pauline Kael, Al Gore, and the great artist/architect Maya Lin show the breadth and depth of Menand's erudition and interests. "At each step of this journey through American cultural history, Louis Menand has an original point to make. Intellectual and cultural history at its best: Game and detached, with a strong curiosity about the political underpinnings of ideas and about the reasons successful ideas insinuate themselves into the culture at large. From one of our leading thinkers and critics, known both for his sly wit, clarity, and rigor, these essays are impossible to put down" (Publisher's blurb). An absolute "must-have" title for Louis Menand collectors. This title is now collectible. This is one of few copies of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing still available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Copies available online have serious flaws, are subsequent printings, or are remainder-marked. This is surely an accessible and lovely alternative. A scarce copy thus. Winner of The Pulitzer Prize for History in 2002 for "The Metaphysical Club". One of the most brilliant American writers of our time. A fine copy. (SEE ALSO OTHER LOUIS MENAND TITLE IN OUR CATALOG). ISBN 0374104344.

1
0