Taking Emerson as his starting-point, Cornel West's basic task is to chart the emergence, development, decline, and recent resurgence of American pragmatism. John Dewey is the central figure in West's pantheon of pragmatists, but he treats as well such varied mid-century representatives of the tradition as Sidney Hook, C. Wright Mills, W.E.B. Du Bois, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Lionel Trilling. West's genealogy is, ultimately, a very personal work, for it is imbued throughout with the author's conviction that a thorough reexamination of American pragmatism may help inspire and instruct contemporary efforts to make and reform American society and culture.
- ISBN10 033352568X
- ISBN13 9780333525685
- Publish Date December 1989 (first published 1 December 1989)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 8 April 1992
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Palgrave Macmillan
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 296
- Language English