Description
Book SynopsisPhilosopher Horace Meyer Kallen is credited with the concept of cultural pluralism. Though living and teaching in Wisconsin when he developed the theory, his sojourn in the Midwest rarely figures in accounts of the theory's origins. And yet, Michael Steiner suggests, the Midwest was the essential catalyst for the theory of cultural pluralism.
Trade ReviewMichael C. Steiner's innovative study of Horace M. Kallen's impact on the American intellectual landscape pays close attention to the hitherto neglected midwestern backdrop that shaped Kallen's theory of cultural pluralism. Deploying a multifaceted lens, Steiner's analysis of Kallen's distinctive profile and the dynamic complexity of the American public arena is probing and generative; it also updates the scholarship surrounding Kallen in productive and important ways. Researchers and lay readers interested in American intellectual history, American cultural history, and the history of the American Jewish experience will find no better guide to American society's pluralist tradition and Kallen's outsized influence on the American scene." - Mark Raider, professor of modern Jewish history, University of Cincinnati
