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Author:   George Cotkin (California Polytechnic State University)
Publisher:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Imprint:   Johns Hopkins University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 3.00cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.703kg
ISBN:  

9780801870378

ISBN 10:   0801870372
Pages:   368
Publication Date:   21 March 2003
Recommended Age:   From 17
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  General ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
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Table of Contents

"Contents: AcknowledgementsChapter One Introduction1741-1949 American Existentialists before the Fact Chapter Two The ""Drizzly November""of the American Soul1928-1955 Kierkegaardian Moments Chapter Three Kierkegaard Comes to America Chapter Four A Kierkegaardian Age of Anxiety1944-1960 The Era of French Existentialism Chapter Five The Vogue of French Existentialism Chapter Six New York Intellectuals and French Existentialists Chapter Seven The Canon of Existentialism1948-1968 Realizing an Existential Vision Chapter Eight ""Cold Rage"": Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison Chapter Nine Norman Mailer's Existential Errand Chapter Ten Robert Frank's Existential Vision1960-1993 Postwar Student and Women's Movements Chapter Eleven Camus's Rebels Chapter Twelve Existential Feminists: Simone de Beauvoir and Betty FriedanChapter Thirteen Conclusion: Existentialism Today and TomorrowNotes Essay on Sources Index"

Reviews

<p>Cotkin... makes the unusual argument that existentialism, despite its reputation as quintessentially French, was an equally American phenomenon... Cotkin does a good job showing how much the French thinkers' ideas resonated among prominent Americans.--Andy Lamey National Post (01/01/2003)

<p>Lively and readable... A fine survey of existential 'notions' in America, from the 1600s to the 1970s, when various new forms of French thought became more fashionable. It is quite discerning in the way it separates the various strands of the actual movement known as existentialism and locates its antecedents in various early American authors.--Jay Parini Guardian (01/01/0001)

<p> In Existential America, intellectual historian George Cotkin proves existentialism's relevance by showing that it was never just a fad; existential sensibilities run deep in our history. Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Camus, who all toured the United States after the war, saw only the country's exterior, its consumerist boosterism. But would it be so surprising if the land of the free were also the land of the searching, the anxious, the alienated? This is, after all, the country of Herman Melville and Edward Hopper... Along the way [Cotkin] drops fascinating anecdotes about how existentialism touched everyone from FDR to MLK, from Whittaker Chambers to Betty Friedan... An engrossing, readable account of a major current in our cultural history. -- Richard Polt, Village Voice

Author Information

George Cotkin is a professor of history at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. He is the author of Reluctant Modernism: American Thought and Culture, 1880-1900 and William James, Public Philosopher, the latter published by Johns Hopkins.

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