Description
Book SynopsisRobert B. Westbrook reconstructs the evolution of Dewey's thought and practice in this masterful intellectual biography, combining readings of his major works with an engaging account of key chapters in his activism.
Trade ReviewA major event in the history of American letters.... This book should last as the definitive word on Dewey for at least as long as Dewey lived.
-- Alan Wolfe * Washington Post Book World *
An exceptionally intelligent, rigorous, and thorough book. Westbrook's call for a renewed appreciation of Dewey's relevance is strengthened by great learning and conviction.
-- Lewis Menand * New York Review of Books *
Far and away the best book on Dewey yet. Westbrook's intellectual biography is scholarship at its finest, a very unusual combination of vast learning, dialectical acuity and literary skill.... This book will do a great deal to make Dewey more available and plausible, and to help his writings shape the imagination of a new generation of Americans.
-- Richard Rorty * New Leader *
Neither a straight biography nor a narrow work of scholarship, John Dewey and American Democracy offers instead a briskly readable narrative of Dewey's lifework, focusing on his advocacy of democracy.... Westbrook's reconstruction of Dewey's evolving thought is detailed, sympathetic, and lucid.
* The Nation *
Westbrook provides a vigorous, convincing, and readable analysis of the major episodes in Dewey's career, including his conflicts with such other prominent, public intellectuals as Randolph Bourne, Walter Lippmann, Lewis Mumford, and Reinhold Niebuhr.
-- David A. Hollinger * The Atlantic *
A comprehensive intellectual biography of the great democratic theorist and activist.... Westbrook's scholarship is definitive, and he succeeds in defending Dewey’s work against most of his important critics, and reminding us that Dewey's concerns and ambitions are still relevant to today's world.
* Kirkus Reviews *
Table of ContentsPrologue: The Making of a Philosopher
Part One. A Social Gospel (1882–1904)
1. The Hegelian Bacillus
2. Organic Democracy
3. Chicago Pragmatism
4. No Mean City
Part Two. Progressive Democracy (1904–1918)
5. Reconstructing Philosophy
6. Democracy and Education
7. The Politics of War
Part Three. Toward the Great Community (1918–1929)
8. The Politics of Peace 23
9. The Phantom Public
10. Philosophy and Democracy
Part Four. Democrat Emeritus (1929–1952)
11. Consummatory Experience
12. Socialist Democracy
13. Their Morals and Ours
14. Keeping the Common Faith
Epilogue: The Wilderness and the Promised Land
Bibliographical Note
Index
