Philocrites has just provided a selection of links to reviews of Philip Gura’s new book American Transcendentalism: A History. For the ease of both of my readers, here is what he had to say.
The reviews of Philip Gura’s American Transcendentalism: A History are starting to pile up. I’ve already called attention to the disappointing Boston Globe review and the much more engaged New York Sun review. Here are a few more:
[Column], Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World 12.16.07: “An electrifying history of a time as full of ferment as the 1960s.”
“America’s first Me generation,” Laura Miller, Salon 12.19.07: “Every New Age guru who urges you to ‘listen to your heart’ or insists that we create our own reality (a la the current bestseller “The Secret”) is the degraded, mutant progeny of Transcendentalism and its belief that we each contain an inner compass that, if we only learn to attend to it properly, will always lead us to the best course.”
“Gura shows how transcendentalists moved on self to society,” Katherine Marino, San Francisco Chronicle 12.2.07
“A thorough meditation on Transcendentalism,” Barbara Lloyd McMichael, Seattle Times 12.7.07
“Bringing ‘Transcendentalism’ home,” Rachel A. Burns, Harvard Crimson 11.29.07
Buy a copy of American Transcendentalism from Amazon, Powells, or the Harvard Bookstore.
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