Three American Hegels: Henry C. Brokmeyer, Horace Williams, and John William Miller

(Hardback)

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Three American Hegels explores Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegels influence on three seminal, yet overlooked, philosophers: Henry C. Brokmeyer, Horace Williams, and John William Miller. Each of them was, in his own way, both an apprentice of Hegel and a true American original: Brokmeyer, the backwoods translator of Hegel; Williams, the mentor of Southern Hegelianism; Williams, the Hegelian teacher of democracy. Until now, their influence on the one school of philosophy that is distinctly grounded in the U.S. experiencepragmatismhas been overlooked, along with the intellectual history of how their contributions developed. Such neglect has resulted in an underestimation of the role that the theories of Hegel played in the development of American philosophy. To unearth these formative yet forgotten works and influences, Johnson explores their respective untapped archives and unearths a three-generation story of a Hegel that is thoroughly practical, concrete, and alive.

Reviews

Ryan Johnson has accomplished what would appear to be impossible. In this erudite, engaging, and truly philosophical study, he made three obscure figures not only come vividly alive but also unmistakably salient to an America removed from their own in terms of years and other respects. In these pages lies a distinct Hegelian vision of the United States, three unmistakably Americanized versions of Hegel, and a communal self-understanding in which unresolved contractions and conflicts are the driving force of a collective endeavor ever at risk of imploding. -- Vincent Colapietro, University of Rhode Island
Hegelian dialectics moves in the undercurrents of American philosophy, driven by a host of almost-forgotten thinkers who reinterpreted Hegelianism for their times. Johnsons resurrection of three of these thinkers reveals their force in a voice so spirited that his exposition proves both instructive and a joy to read. -- Katie Terezakis, professor of philosophy, Rochester Institute of Technology

Author Bio

Ryan J. Johnson is associate professor and chair of the philosophy department at Elon University. He specializes in twentieth-century continental philosophy; critical philosophy of race; Spinoza, Hegel, and Nietzsche; and Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy.