Eight brilliant and original American thinkers (Edwards, Franklin, John Adams, Emerson, Peirce, William James, Dewey, and Santayana) are the subject of this widely admired book by one of America's foremost writers of intellectual history. In this study, the author finds a degree of continuity and some elements of underlying unity in the varied and idiosyncratic thoughts of these men. Instead of superficial similarities, he emphasizes a common moral tenor, an instrumental conception of knowledge, and a broad, ethical conception of art.

Puritans and Pragmatists: Eight Eminent American Thinkers (Midland Books: No. 197)

Politics & Social Sciences

Conkin, Paul Keith

Philosophy

Indiana University Press

Self-Evident Truths; Being a Discourse on the Origins and Development of the First Principles of American Government--Natural Rights, Popular sovereig

Politics & Government

Indiana Univ. Pr

Prophets of prosperity: America's first political economists

Puritans and Pragmatists: Eight Eminent American Thinkers

Cane Ridge: America's Pentecost (Curti Lectures)

Religion & Spirituality

Univ of Wisconsin Pr

Tomorrow a new World: The New Deal Community Program

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

History

World

Franklin Classics

With characteristic eloquence and insight, prominent historian Paul K. Conkin explores large, indeed cosmic issues in When All the Gods Trembled. Conkin focuses his analysis on the numerous challenges in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century to age-old beliefs in the existence of a god, in a world that exhibits some extrinsic or intrinsic purpose, in the divine origin and special destiny of humans, and in transcendent moral values. By the 1920s, these challenges had created a major crisis of faith. Conkin traces the origins of Western beliefs about the gods and about human origins, beliefs shared by the three great Semitic religions. He proceeds with a searching and original analysis of Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, rejecting conventional understandings of Darwin in order to probe the logical credentials of his thesis and its implications for Christian theology. From Darwin he moves to the deep rifts that developed between American orthodox, evangelical, and fundamentalist Christians on the one hand and liberals and modernists on the other. These tensions created the enormous public interest in the Scopes trial of 1925, which provides the subject of a revealing chapter. The final two chapters focus on the intellectual debates during and immediately after the famous trial. One involves a dialogue among the most representative and vocal Christian intellectuals in the 1920s―the orthodox E. Gresham Machen, the liberal Harry Emerson Fosdick, and the modernist Shailer Matthews. The last chapter includes brief vignettes of a diverse group of intellectuals who rejected any version of theism, including John Dewey, George Santayana, Harry Elmer Barnes, John Crowe Ransom, Walter Lippmann, and Joseph Wood Krutch. Conkin's survey reveals a degree of the public's disillusionment with American intellectuals during this critical period. The fundamental themes of Western civilization were crumbling, and Americans had to give up on one consoling certainty after another. The loss was great and the possible gains for humanity unsure and precarious. Yet most American intellectuals failed to provide either a deep analysis of the issues at stake or more than myths and fictions to replace the spiritual loss. While recognizing this failure, Conkin eschews any facile condemnation, appreciating how poignant and even tragic were the dilemmas faced by the first generation of intellectuals to confront a world that seemed to exhibit no preordained goal, and provide no promise of human redemption.

When All the Gods Trembled: Darwinism, Scopes, and American Intellectuals

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

A history of recent America

Crowell

<p>Each of the books in this series focuses upon a central theme or issue that has presented American historians with problems of interpretation. The volumes have been written by specialists on the topics covered, and in every case the author carefully considered the evidence of recent scholarship. Designed for use in both survey and period courses, the series comprises a resource of interpretative writings from which American history teachers may select titles to meet their specific needs.</p>

The New Deal (The Crowell American history series)

Americas

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Books by Conkin, Paul Keith