American Cultural Critics

edited by David Murray and contributions by Richard Bradbury, Ross Posnock, Clive Bush, Helen Carr, Laurence J. Friedman, Nick Heffernan, Liam Kennedy, Richard H. King, Michael Kreyling, Jerry Z. Muller, Stephen J. Whitfield, Hugh Wilford, Michael Wood and David Murray

Book cover: American Cultural Critics

Extent: 304 pages

Publisher: University of Exeter Press

Subjects: Anthropology, Literary Studies

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(October 1995)

ISBN: 9780859894043

5.67 x 9.02 inches

Price: $33.00

In stock

This collection of essays assesses the work of a number of American intellectuals, including Susan Sontag, F.O. Mathieson, Daniel Bell and Hannah Arendt, who have addressed issues of culture and its multifaceted relations to politics, history, sociology and literary criticism.


This collection of essays assesses the work of a number of American intellectuals, including Susan Sontag, F.O. Mathieson, Daniel Bell and Hannah Arendt, who have addressed issues of culture and its multifaceted relations to politics, history, sociology and literary criticism. Concentrating on writing since 1940, the essays examine the central themes of American postwar intellectual history, including the continuing reaction to (or against) modernity and technology, the legacies of Marxism and psychoanalysis, and the re-examination of American founding principles and figures in conservative or liberal terms.

Introduction, David Murray 1. Southern Literary and Intellectual History in the Twentieth Century: The Agrarians to Richard Weaver, Michael Kreyling 2. The Agony of the Avant-Garde: Philip Rahv and the New York Intellectuals, Hugh Wilford 3. F.O. Mattheissen's "
Devotion to the Possibilities of Democracy"
and his Place as an American Intellectual, Richard Bradbury 4. Susan Sontag: The Intellectual and Cultural Criticism, Liam Kennedy 5. Stanley Cavell: Must We Believe What We Say?, Michael Wood 6. The Person in Place: Lewis Mumford, Pioneer of Cultural Criticism, Clive Bush 7. Coming of Age in America: Margaret Mead and Karen Horney, Helen Carr 8. Erik H. Erikson's Critical Themes and Voices: The Task of Synthesis, Lawrence J. Friedman 9. Philip Rieff, Jerry Z. Muller 10. Hannah Arendt, Richard H. King 11. Garry Wills, Stephen J. Whitfield 12. Black Intellectuals Past and Present, Ross Posnock 13. Culture at Modernity's End: Daniel Bell and Fredric Jameson, Nick Heffernan Index

  • Contributions by Richard Bradbury
  • Contributions by Clive Bush
  • Contributions by Helen Carr
  • Contributions by Laurence J. Friedman
  • Contributions by Nick Heffernan
  • Contributions by Liam Kennedy
  • Contributions by Richard H. King
  • Contributions by Michael Kreyling
  • Contributions by David Murray
  • Contributions by Ross Posnock
  • Contributions by Stephen J. Whitfield
  • Contributions by Hugh Wilford
  • Contributions by Michael Wood

"Each essay exposes stronger connections than one might imagine between the lives and writings of some of America's important critics. What is nice about the entire collection is that each essay spends more time on history and biography than critical analysis." Borderlines: Studies in American Culture Vol.4 , No. 1, 1997 "...The book offers a rich harvest of insights (some even refreshingly novel) into the interior of a number of American critical paradigms - some central, some marginal, but all undoubtedly relevant." Newsletter of the European Association for American Studies