The Ideas That Made America: A Brief History

by Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen

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. DuBois to Jane Addams, and Betty Friedan to
Richard Rorty. The Ideas That Made America: A Brief History traces how Americans have addressed the issues and events of their time and place, whether 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. In engaging and accessible prose, this introduction to American thought considers how notions about freedom and belonging, the market and morality -- and even truth -- have commanded generations of Americans and been the cause of fierce debate.

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Politics, American, Cultural

234 pages, Hardcover

First published January 3, 2019

Reviews

[Mehrsa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I usually think most books are too long, but this one seemed too short. It was fascinating and I learned a lot, but she covered so much ground in so few pages. Especially the 1960s era until today--seems like there could be a lot more in there. Still, it was refreshing to read a book that is well-edited.

[Rick Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a delightful survey of philosophical thought that had shaped and tempered the American ethos.

At times there’s a bit of a tennis match going on of bouncing back-and-forth across decades to attempt to unify very different philosophers into a cohesive narrative. I found this a little bit confusing for I don’t have a very strong background on Many of the referenced philosophers.

I thought the writing itself was wonderfully clear and straightforward. Ideas organized well. I hope to revisit this fun little buck in a year or so after having read a few of the thinkers mentioned within.

[Ryan Boissonneault · Rating 3 out of 5]

In The Ideas That Made America,, Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen provides a brief intellectual history of the United States from the first European contact to the present day, focusing on the movement of ideas across national and local borders and across time. Recognizing that new ideas are always dependent on the intellectual work of those who came before, Rosenhagen includes many of the European ideas that had a major impact on American intellectual life.

To summarize centuries of intellectual work in a short book of 180 pages is no easy task, but Rosenhagen does a reasonable job of presenting the major intellectual currents of each period. It’s well worth reading to get a high-level view of where our current ideas and conflicts originated.

While I won’t attempt a full summary of the book, I will comment on two overarching themes that I think tie everything together: 1) America’s resistance to authoritarianism (both political and intellectual), and 2) America’s secular foundation.

1. America’s resistance to authoritarianism

Throughout its history, America has had to resist several authoritarian forces and temptations to remain a democratic republic. This starts with George Washington, who could have easily instituted a monarchy with himself as king had he not willfully abdicated his power after the Revolutionary War. Even King George III said that Washington “would be the greatest man in the world” if he voluntarily relinquished his power, not believing that he would actually do it. Yet this is exactly what he did.

Next came the threat of theocracy, during the Great Awakenings and beyond, from religious leaders who wanted to breach the wall of separation between church and state. And of course, there was the threat of fascism and communism during the desperate times of the Great Depression.

Yet throughout all the trials and temptations, America has remained—remarkably so—a democratic republic, stubbornly resistant to the dogmatic religious and philosophical movements of the day.

America’s resistance to authoritarianism was not only political but also intellectual; no single religious or philosophical system has taken hold as the one true way to live. We’ve seen transcendentalism, existentialism, and postmodernism (as only a few examples) come and go, along with both eastern and western religions, none able to hold the American mind for too long. As Rosenhagen wrote:

“No matter how much Americans get involved in (and worry over) contestations of truth, beauty, morality, and justice, they do not really want philosophers—or any professional intellectuals for that matter—to settle the debates once and for all. That is what a totalitarian society looks like, not a vibrant, if messy, democratic one.”

An open, democratic society is in constant flux, and every problem that is solved generates new ones. What we gain in active engagement and disagreement we sacrifice in simple consensus, and perhaps this is the way we should want it to be. The second we lose our impassioned disagreements is the second we lose our democracy to some form of authoritarian force we’ve been able to somehow resist over our tumultuous history. As Rosenhagen wrote:

“Over the course of the centuries, Americans learned and self-taught, native born and immigrant, religious and secular, and left and right have contributed to this long conversation by offering new arguments and key terms for Americans to think about the world, themselves, their truth, and their America. No one, so far, has been successful in answering these questions once and for all. They only came up with provisional explanations and then posed new questions. Perhaps we should not want it any other way. And so the conversation of American thought continues.”

This is not to endorse cultural relativism; it’s to point out that the conversation should never close, and that the best way to strengthen our views is to have them challenged and defended. This process of rational debate leads to progress, however slow, and is best described in the words of Martin Luther king Jr.: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

2. America’s secular foundation

It may seem less so now, but leaving the words “God,” “Jesus,” and “Christianity” out of the US Constitution in the 18th century was absolutely revolutionary, especially considering that the Constitution was written 72 years before Charles Darwin’s publication of On the Origin of Species, during a time when the theory of special creation was still (somewhat) persuasive and when almost everyone was Christian. As the great American agnostic Robert Ingersoll said:

“They [the US founders] knew that to put God in the constitution was to put man out. They knew that the recognition of a Deity would be seized upon by fanatics and zealots as a pretext for destroying the liberty of thought. They knew the terrible history of the church too well to place in her keeping or in the keeping of her God the sacred rights of man. They intended that all should have the right to worship or not to worship and that our laws should make no distinction on account of creed. They intended to found and frame a government for man and for man alone. They wished to preserve the individuality of all to prevent the few from governing the many and the many from persecuting and destroying the few.”

In fact, religion in general is mentioned in the Constitution only twice:

- Article VI, clause 3: “...but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” (even though in practical terms this probably isn’t true, at least until an atheist can legitimately run for office)
- The First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

That’s it for religion; no mention of God, Jesus, or Christianity. The focus is entirely on human rights and duties and the establishment of rational lawmaking for the promotion of the general good for and by the people. As Rosenhagen wrote, “Although the American Revolution cannot exclusively claim to have put Enlightenment ideals into practice, it can claim to have been the first to try to do so.”

It could be countered that the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, does include the words “creator” and “God,” but there’s good reason to suppose he had in mind the Deist God rather than the Christian God, and here’s why.

First, Deists believe that a supreme being created the universe, but that this being does not actively intervene in it. Deists therefore do not believe in prayer, miracles, or divine intervention and instead believe that the universe operates according to natural laws.

Here’s how we know Jefferson was a Deist:

- Jefferson expressed his Deist leanings to John Adams in personal letters.
- Jefferson said that the three greatest men that have ever lived, “without any exception,” were Francis Bacon, John Locke, and Isaac Newton; if he were a Christian, there’s an obvious omission in that list.
- Jefferson wrote The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, commonly referred to as the Jefferson Bible, which he created by removing all of the miracles and supernatural elements from the New Testament, leaving only the moral teachings. Jefferson did not believe in the divinity of Christ, only the greatness of his moral instruction.

Many of the founders were also Deists, most definitely Thomas Paine and Benjamin Franklin, while in others it may be a debatable point. But what’s most important is that the Deist framework, rather than the orthodox Christian framework, is what was incorporated into the Constitution. It is largely thanks to this that, to my mind, America has been able to thwart all attempts at authoritarian or religious rule.

[Craig Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

As will be the case with any book covering this much territory in under 200 pages, this provides the view from about 40,000 feet, but it's hard to imagine a more sure-handed pilot than Ratner-Rosenhagen. In the areas I know best--African-American, late 20th century--I would have tweaked a few things differently (less attention to critical theory, at least a nod to James Baldwin, at bit more on contemporary Native American). But those kinds of differences in emphasis are inevitable and I was very glad to have revisited the tradition in this way.

One warning: if you don't have some background to begin with, some of the cross-references may seem cryptic.

[Steven Bragg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume provides a chronological sequence of philosophical thinking in America over the last few hundred years. While certainly informative, it acts largely as a guide to lots of other books to read, and so is more of an encyclopedia than a deep discussion. Though, if she had gone deep on these topics, it would have been a multi-volume set that would be too dense to read. So, this book represents something of a balancing act between the alternatives for how much to present to the reader.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kind of refreshing to read/hear a history of ideas in which the author really does skip over historical events like WWI to focus on intellectual currents. But she never does come to grips with just how broadly influential the various movements were in shaping American culture--I was hoping for some analysis of how Emerson's transcendentalism, or Kuhn's picture of paradigm shifts, really penetrated into the every day lives of people...but she's basically presenting an outline survey course here.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

most intellectual histories are very dense. this was the quick, articulate summary of american intellectual thought i've been looking for for a long time. it's a great starting point to further investigate some the discussed people + ideas.

[Dan Graser · Rating 3 out of 5]

UW-Madison Professor Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen has written here a wonderful traversal of many eras and concepts as pertains to "American Thought." Doing so is by definition quite difficult in that pinpointing a moment where thought and discourse in this country genuinely became, "American," without resorting to arbitrary moments of conflict with colonial powers must sidestep superficiality and embrace the notion that this country was never really one thing, ethnically or philosophically. What you also must pay careful attention to are the voices that were marginalized and muffled despite the lofty rhetoric of each time period's central figures, this is something she deals with quite well.

The title of this work made me think there would be sections based on distilled notions from various time periods however the author does not frame the work this way. Rather, what we have here are 8 chapters and an epilogue that deal with time periods from before the nation's founding, through our most profound conflicts, ultimately bringing us up to today. Of course you cannot write a book such as this without discussing several, "isms," especially those that are uniquely American (pragmatism for instance), however each section of this work deals with the conflict of how a nation such as ours, which even in its most bigoted and racist periods was still idealistically pluralist and extremist at times, could have genuinely, "national," moments of ideology and thought.

The embracing of Enlightenment values during the Revolutionary Period while rarely living up to them except in print, the conflict of our secular democracy with entrenched and at times extreme religious factions vying for political power, the creation of distinctly American notions such as Thoreau's transcendentalism and the pragmatism of the "Metaphysical Club," the influence of Darwin on philosophical and educational practices championed by Dewey, the 20th century wars and the philosophy between them, postmodernism and the French vogue, and the conflict of the, "opening of the American mind," followed by its counterpart of, "Against Universalism," form the overarching flow to the work. Rather than feeling like you engage with one topic at a time, Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen genuinely makes you feel like you are engaging with the evolutionary ebb and flow of American ideology reflected through the key singular figures but also the individualist spirit that pervades American thought throw the centuries. In a work as focused and short as this I would still have enjoyed more time being spent on the last 20 years or so as there is a wealth of material there, however, that shouldn't preclude you from perusing this very lucid summary.

[Gregory Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I had read this book in graduate school. If I ever get to teach in a grad program again, I will find a way to assign this book. It is a roadmap, a primer if you will, of the development of American ideas. But what I love about the book is how it knits together so many disparate schools of thought.

The main thing that struck me about the book is how much foreign thought makes the American mind. People born in places all over the world permeate science, psychology, history, and related fields. But Ratner-Rosenhagen distills many of these major themes into easy to understand paragraphs.

I won't give the blow by blow summary here, but suffice it to say the book begins before the contact between Natives and Europeans, running all the way until the modern era. In fact, there are many sub-sections along the way that will cause readers to reconsider periodization of history based on the ways in which people made sense of the world. The Enlightenment and scientific developments are integral to this story, but so too is philosophy, literature, and language. The author conjured names I haven't thought about in a long time, pathfinding thought leaders in education, science, medicine, and more.

If I was to teach an intellectual history class, I would use this book as the spine. I would assign a chapter of this and then follow the author's cited readings throughout the book. This could work for undergrads all the way up to doctoral students. I would argue that all students, regardless of specialization, should have at least this survey level understanding of intellectual history. It's a remarkable book for what it accomplishes in 180 pages. When I read it again, I want to make a point of dipping into several of the readings mentioned along the way. This is a must read book for serious scholars of history, but could also appeal to anyone seeking a more wholistic view of what shapes some of the unique contours of the American mind.

[Joseph Stieb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kinda surprised that the ratings on this book are relatively low. I though it was impressive in its scope, fair-minded and objective, and interesting all while being incredibly concise. This book doesn't have central arguments, as it's kind of a narrative survey history of ideas in U.S. history. To JRR's credit, she doesn't just focus on the good ideas but covers the full gamut of ideas, including racist, eugenicist, and other forms of discriminatory thought. She impressively weaves in context and biography while also highlighting some thinkers I hadn't heard of or heard much about. She also has a great discussion at the start of the book about the nature and purposes of intellectual history, arguing that ideas can sort of take on a life of their own as forces of causation. I'm sure I'll draw on this book a lot for research, thinking about methodology, and especially for teaching, given its punchy yet vivid descriptions of key thinkers. Oh, and it has a great source list at the end! Definitely a model of concise writing and a breadth of study.

[robin friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

How Ideas Make America

Some years ago, I read and reviewed Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen's book "American Nietzsche: A History of an Icon and his Ideas" (2011) which examines the reception of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900) in the United States and Americans' ongoing and continuted fascination with Nietzsche's writings and character. I was impressed with the erudtion of the book and its portrayal of the American life of the mind in response to Nietzsche. Ratner -Rosenhagen's more recent book, "The Ideas that Made America: A Brief History" (2019) is shorter but substantially broader than her book on Nietzsche. It consists of the play of ideas that helped to make America from the earliest days of European contact, and perhaps earlier, to the present. A major goal of the book is to show the importance of ideas to the making of the United States; or, as the title suggests how ideas made America. It is valuable at the outset to see the importance of ideas and thought to our country's history. The book reminded me of Louis Menand's well-known study "The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America" (2002) and of Carlin Romano's book "America the Philosophical" (2014). Ratner-Rosenhagen is the Merle Curti and Wilas-Borghesi Distinguished Achievement Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin -- Madison where she teaches US intellectual and cultural history. I have fond memories of the University of Wisconsin, both in Madison and in Milwaukee, as the home of my efforts when young in the study of philosophy.

Ratner-Rosenhagen explains her project in the book's Introduction as presenting "a brief survey of some of the most compelling episodes and abiding preoccupations in American intellectual history." She explains her project further by stating that it is "fueled by the desire to come into contact with interesting people we might not otherwise know but for the records of their minds they left behind." She describes her book as "thinking about thinking" and, even though her book uses traditional sources of intellectual history such as philosophy, literature, social and cultural criticism, these "are only some of the sources that can awaken us to all the ways Americans have constructed their realities and made meaning in their lives." Her book focuses over time on the movement of ideas across national borders, as was the case in her study of Nietzsche, the movement of ideas across time, such as the influence of nineteenth century feminism on its contemporary successor, and the movement of ideas across borders within American culture, including the movement of ideas from intellectual sources in, say, the academy to more popular culture and vice versa.

The book consists of eight chapters chronologically arranged each of which presents some of the leading ideas and books of the age, how they developed in their time, and how they influenced American development. The chapter on early European settlement focuses largely on the Puritans and on their interaction with Native Americans and on the introduction of slavery. Next, Ratner-Rosenhagen ties revolutionary America in with Enlightenment thought. Consideration of Pre-Civil War America concludes with the third chapter which traces the growing influence of romanticism in the United States, both North and South and on the incipient feminist movement in the person of Margaret Fuller.

Chapter four, "Contests of Intellectual Authority: 1850--1890" is pivotal in the book in its consideration of the consideration of the Civil War and in showing the impact in the United States of Darwin's "Origin of the Species" published in 1859 and of the theory of evolution. Darwin's influence became central to further intellectual activity in the United States and remains so today, not least in the development of American pragmatism which receives substantial discussion for a short book, especially in the figure of John Dewey (1859 -- 1952).

Chapters 5-8 have a contemporary feel as Ratner-Rosenhagen examines the growth of modernism in philosophy, literature and the social sciences, the impact of two World Wars and the Depression, the resurgence of religious thought and the response to it, the growth of American intellectual conservatism second-wave feminism, the civil rights movement, identity thinking. and much more. She shows that the contemporary battle of ideas in America has roots not only in foreign movements but even more in earlier stages of American thought were current ideas, including anti-foundationalism and postmodernism and its aftermath could be found in embryonic form. Ratner-Rosenhagen considers the late American philosopher Richard Rorty (1931 -2007) as emblematic of some of the tendencies of contemporary American thought.

With so much to cover in a short book, Ratner-Rosenhagen's treatment of individual figures and works is necessarily brief. Still, Ratner-Rosenhagen displays a fascination with ideas and people and with their relations through time. She draws, a little too easily, an analogy between American thought and an ongoing conversation. But American intellectual iife and the search for meaning continue in a way, the book shows is fascinating and inspiring if tumultuous. The book includes an excellent eight-page bibliography of suggestions for further reading. Ratner-Rosenhagen's study concludes:

"Over the course of the centuries, Americans learned and self-taught, native born and immigrant, religious and secular, and left and right have contributed to this long conversation by offering new arguments and key terms for Americans to think about the world, themselves, their truth, and their America. No one, so far, has been successful in answering these questions once and for all. They only came up with provisional explanations and then posed new questions. Perhaps we should not want it any other way. And so the conversation of American thought continues."

Let us hope that Americans continue to think, to engage with each other, to agree and to disagree, and to explore further the life of the mind.

Robin Friedman

[Caroline Bock · Rating 4 out of 5]

My inclination was to read this slim overview of America fast as I do a lot of books -- ideas of America in the 18th century to rethinking America and globalization today in 180 pages not counting footnotes/index-- big check. However, The Ideas That Made America from University of Wisconsin history professor Ratner-Rosenhagen should not be read quickly -- the challenge is to read it deeply and then, I think, when I have time, and you have time, to find a much more in-depth book on any particular chapter. The idea of America is big, extensive; it is, unfortunately, anything but brief. But this professor give us a good starting point. And to her credit knows it's only a start, "And so the conversation of American thought continues," is how she ends the book, and on it goes....

--Caroline
still searching for the ideas that make America
and writing (fiction) too...

[Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I first "read" the audiobook for American Intellectual History - A Very Short introduction (VSI). I was impressed and knew I wanted more, it being a very short introduction.... So I looked at this author and saw she has also written this work, The Ideas that Made America - a brief history. Looking at the details, I recall the VSI was about 180 pages, and this was maybe 220 pages, so I figured, rather than re-read/listen to the VSI version, I would consume this Brief History version and get a little more content.... To clarify, these works are in fact direct derivatives, with the VSI version containing verbatim content for all of it, and the Brief History, likely original work having some additional content. Sorry, I did not take note of the specific differences, and it would be hard to hand-wave my impression. But I'd say I did enjoy the extra content - some as just a little more depth than the VSI version, and others, I think, entirely new, perhaps more controversial sections, that were cut to make the VSI version.

ok, so over-all, this is one of those humbling and unsettling works for me. I would consider myself pretty well read in early American history, and revolutionary - enlightenment ideas. For a long time I have considered myself an arm-chair student of "history of ideas", and history and philosophy of science. But admittedly, I have found myself stuck in the past and have not focused much attention on the 20th century .... sure, not a complete void in my comprehension, but pretty weak. So given my foundations, I appreciated this work in summarizing accounts of those early periods of American intellectual ideation - I give the author extra credit for attempting to recognize the full history of American intellectualism in starting with our indigenous, or perhaps better, native, earliest "pre-contact" cultures on the continent prior to western, white colonization. She also does a nice job considering the intellectual interests of those early colonizers as well. I am good with her covering of the enlightenment transformations, the 18th century romance and transcendentalist thinkers, the impacts of Darwin's revelation of Evolution, the ideas of JS Mill and John Dewey, the ideas of pragmatism, social darwinism,... etc.

The trouble for me begins when American history and life in general start to get complicated and messy - post world war II. The seeds of civil rights, women's rights, and individual, human rights and identity planted earlier, these begin to come to fruition in the 60s. Throw in Thomas Kuhn's ideas about the Structure of Scientific Revolution and we arrive at Post-modernism, essentially tossing away our entire confidence in truth and knowledge.... Then the word-salad really gets tossed with foundationalism, anti-foundationalism, essentialism, universalism, anti-universalism, and then globalization of the 90s.... and to me, the mind altering thought that today's political correctness, cancel culture, narcissism are oxymoronic contradictions between those against universalism, and yet for idealized human rights. How do we achieve the goals of kumbaya globalization, a multi-cultural melting-pot of culture and ethnicity, at the same time we try to protect our individual, cultural and national identity?

"What are the consequences of the deconstruction of the self for the liberal tradition? Does the self, as construed by the liberal tradition still exist? If not, whose human rights are we defending?"

Yes, word-salad, brain fog, incoherence. I've listened to the last chapter and epilogue of this work twice now, and parts, thrice... and have succumbed to ordering the book in hard copy so I can read it more slowly and try to make better sense of which way is up? If anything, this book serves as a great jumping off point with references to many thinkers and their works along the way. I need the written copy to find and follow some that interested me in my hearing. In particular, perhaps Richard Rorty and Allan Bloom have drawn my attention for further investigation.

One thing I find interesting to observe is how the intellectual and philosophical writings seem to precede well in advance of the historically recognizable impact of their interpretations. Oddly which came first? Where did they observe any widespread human/cultural behavior shift in order to interpret and conceptualize them, or are these intellectuals actually prophets, whose work inspires and influences the future outcomes?

A second point of interest is how/that I have lived my life through this last half century of intellectual turmoil without much notice/awareness.... sure, the early years were in childhood, but even through high school and university, I don't seem to be cognizant of much of the intellectual, cultural churnings going on. As I was graduating from Engineering school in the early 90's, Globalization was the buzz word of the decade. It was a time of relative peace and prosperity and the outlook optimistic that the world was coming together, working together, respectfully. There were visions, perhaps in my head of the potential for an effective world-order governance, the dissolving of nations and borders - artificial constructs they are.

Yet here we are today - a more divided world, still at war in too many places. A divided nation with nationalism and ethnic distrust growing within and around the world.

But I digress....
Good book. Eye opening.
More to learn, as always.
Making me think its time to put the past behind me and get with the now!

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent introduction to US intellectual history, suitable for use in upper level undergraduate courses.

This book leaves out a lot and often doesn’t spend as much time on important ideas as it should, but the alternative would make it a thousand pages long and unreadable. The short length is definitely a good choice and adds to the feeling of all the ideas are part of a greater ecosystem.

[Paul Rasmussen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this broad overview of how American thought has evolved based on influences through the centuries. Pretty academic and scholarly. Helped me see that ideas and values can last centuries so have patience with people who don’t evolve their thinking quickly.

[Andrew Carr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a masterly brief overview of key ideas, intellectual movements and thinkers in US history. It demonstrates time and again that it is ideas which shape both actors and structures - giving them their hue, direction and substance. It is through and via ideas that we must turn to understand not only the past, but our present selves as well.

I've sometimes written of 'citizenship books' in my reviews, and this one fits that category. It would be extremely beneficial if all citizens of the US possessed the knowledge of a book like this. Not because it makes any particular argument, but to understand the broader lineage of their present concerns, the way questions have occurred again and again, the efforts of outsiders to provoke and insiders to build or defend. With such an education under your belt, a sense of perspective and broader principle is far easier to obtain.

There are many who of course will not need such an introduction, and tbh I didn't really gain much 'new' from it. But I valued the refresher anyway. Like a chance for an athlete to practice some fundamental skills, there is great value in well-written general overviews .Taking time to look again at the broad typologies helps us see the essential and the important, however well known it may be, rather than our usual obsessions with the new, albeit micro frontiers.

The Ideas That Made America is a a quick, beautifully written demonstration of the power of ideas, about a nation founded perhaps uniquely on ideas. One that wrestles with them more publicly, and more powerfully than any others. Well worth your time.

[Stephen Newell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading books like this make me realize that there are still A LOT of words i don't know...

Jokes aside, it was a very informative read and the author succeeds at breaking down the vast subject matter within 200 pages without it feeling rushed. My one qualm with the book is that it does seem as if Ratner-Rosenhagen does wander through each chapter's concepts at times. Every chapter starts out well and it is then rounded out well, but sometimes the pages in between just meander from person to person or idea to idea with little guidance. At no point did I feel as if a chapter was ended abruptly, however, so pushing through the wandering paragraphs still leads to valuable conclusions.

[Jim Schnitter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading this book was like marching through a bog. At the end, I felt exhausted and just happy to be done with it. Save this one for your retirement dream of getting a BA in American history.

On a serious note, the author didn't bridge the gaps from these ideas to how they affected the course of events, outside of Enlightenment ideals burbling up through Revolutionary writing. For instance, there's nothing on the temperance movement, which seemed like a big oversight, in my mind. It put an end to the roaring 20's and ushered in the disastrous Prohibition era. What were it's intellectual underpinnings?

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting more from this book. Given the title and the introduction about the history of ideas in America, I did not expect a fairly traditional survey of American history that went through the standard eras of Colonialism, Enlightenment, Romanticism, etc.

Still, it gave some interesting anecdotes and insights especially towards the end, but did not focus and trace the ideas as they were rising, falling, and morphing in a way the title and intro led me to expect and which I would have appreciated more.

[Cerrad · Rating 3 out of 5]

I find it very interesting to look at how the ideas, theories, schools of thought, etc. affect the actions of individuals and their greater society/community when I read about history. This was the perfect amount of depth and despite its (to me, anyway) complex subject, I found it very readable. Looking forward to hearing this author at the Wisconsin Book Festival later this month.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I assumed from the title this book was packed with ideas, most of which I’d never heard names for (e.g., antifoundationalism) and some had me looking up definitions. This is the first book in a long time that I felt was important and interesting enough that I took notes. I got a lot of context for thinkers whose name I’ve heard but didn’t understand their role in history.

[Lee Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook—think I would have gotten more out of reading a paper copy, as it was very intense. Like an adult review of AP American history (focusing on intellectual thought and theory that shaped America). Probably needs a higher star than this, as I think it was meticulously researched.

[Yunis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tour of the American ldeas factory. The book was an example of my intellectual understanding of American writing. It seems that I need to do a lot more reading. The book helped me create a list of future references.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to this and it was hard for me to keep focused I thought ideas meant inventions but even still it was interesting I just think philosophy goes over my head it felt like a college course but instead of a semester it only took 7hrs to get through lol

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book to be both superficial and pretentious. A disappointment.

[Jaclyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Concise, engaging read that reminded me of many of the connections and seeds of our traditions and histories. Helpful review / overview, with excellent further reading suggestions.

[Rob Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. To the point, and reliable introduction to American intellectual thought.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, concise overview of America's intellectual history.

[Rishi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding. Nimble yet thorough. Always eloquent. Like climbing a ladder in which each rung extends into a library of its own.

[Jeff Whitlock · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was excited about this book, but it wasn't that good.

Not much to learn here, unless you're pretty unfamiliar with intellectual history.