America the Philosophical

(Paperback)

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This bold, insightful book argues that America today towers as the most philosophical culture in the history of the world, an unprecedented marketplace for truth and debate. With verve and keen intelligence, Carlin Romano-Pulitzer Prize finalist, award-winning book critic, and professor of philosophy-takes on the widely held belief that the United States is an anti-intellectual country. Instead he provides a richly reported overview of American thought, arguing that ordinary Americans see through phony philosophical justifications faster than anyone else, and that the best of our thinkers ditch artificial academic debates for fresh intellectual enterprises. Along the way, Romano seeks to topple philosophy's most fiercely admired hero, Socrates, asserting that it is Isocrates, the nearly forgotten Greek philosopher who rejected certainty, whom Americans should honor as their intellectual ancestor. America the Philosophical is a rebellious tour de force that both celebrates our country's unparalleled intellectual energy and promises to bury some of our most hidebound cultural cliches.

Reviews

Praise for Carlin Romano's America the Philosophical:

Ambitious. . . . Convincing. . . . An encyclopedic survey of the life of the mind in the United States. . . . Romano is enlightening when he analyzes American intellectual life and illustrates its liveliness.
The New York Times Book Review

Is the title a joke . . . [Romano] argues, brilliantly and at length, that it is not.
Harvard Magazine

A high-speed tour of Americas big thinkers . . . Romano is a cheerful and exuberant guide.
The Philadelphia Inquirer

Genuinely exciting and provocative . . . If Romano wanted to discombobulate the traditional landscape of American philosophy, he achieved his goal."
Umberto Eco

Admirable . . . Romano writes with the snap of a journalist.
The Wall Street Journal

A comprehensive intellectual history from Emerson to Rawls.
The New Yorker

Magisterial.
Broad Street Review

Romanos remarkable book stands out in terms of ambition, breadth, provocativeness, and, when needed, a delicate touch.
Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard University, author of Truth, Beauty and Goodness Reframed

Stimulating . . . graceful . . . exuberant . . . succeeds in filling ones mind with the excitement of ideas duking it out.
Seattle Times

Both scholarly and entertaininglearned and stimulatingto an equal and extraordinary degree. America the Philosophical is one of the books of the year . . . A hugely enlightening compendium of intellectual heresy.
The Buffalo News

In an age when many debates are high-pitched screeds, how counterintuitive it is to argue that American philosophical thought is booming. But thats trademark Romano . . . Romano turns his subject into a narrative of people brought together by their love of ideas.
Chicago Tribune

Romanos grip on his subject is fierce. . . . A tour de forceencyclopedic, entertaining and enlightening.
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

With illuminating anecdotes and an addictive prose style, Romano renders complex ideas lucid without sacrificing depth of understanding or his splendid sense of humor . . . breathtaking intellectual range and passion.
Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Part love letter, part hand grenade, Romanos commentary is sure to delight and infuriate in a way that will underscore its thesis.
Booklist

Romano writes so well and unrolls his knowledge in such an unthreatening way that before you know it, you will be thinking philosophically yourself.
Philip Seib, Director of the Center for Public Diplomacy, University of Southern California

Romano offers a smart, sophisticated and counter-intuitive comparison of European and American culture. His language is rich and textured, but also contemporary and wry.
Dallas Morning News

Romanos voracious intellectual curiosity is impressiveAmerica the Philosophical is dense with amusing anecdotes.
The Daily

Author Bio

Carlin Romano, Critic-at-Large of The Chronicle of Higher Education and literary critic of The Philadelphia Inquirer for twenty-five years (1984-2009), is Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Ursinus College. His criticism has appeared in The Nation, The New Yorker, The Village Voice, Harper's, The American Scholar, Salon, The Times Literary Supplement, and many other publications. A former president of the National Book Critics Circle, he was a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Criticism, cited for "bringing new vitality to the classic essay across a formidable array of topics." He lives in Philadelphia.