{"product_id":"9780226310770-thinking-across-the-american-grain-ideo","title":"Thinking Across the American Grain","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIdeology, Intellect, and the New Pragmatism\u003cbr\u003eA consideration of pragmatism in America that demonstrates how it provides the most critically resilient and constructive response to the intellectual   challenges of postmodernism.\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThinking Across the American Grain\u003c\/i\u003e Giles Gunn makes a \u003cbr\u003emajor contribution to the current revival of pragmatism in \u003cbr\u003eAmerica by showing how it provides the most critically \u003cbr\u003eresilient and constructive response to the intellectual \u003cbr\u003echallenges of postmodernism. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGunn reclaims and refurbishes elements of the pragmatic \u003cbr\u003etradition that either have been lost or have undergone \u003cbr\u003eimportant changes and shows how newer critical approaches \u003cbr\u003ehave strong roots in the pragmatic tradition. For Gunn, \u003cbr\u003epragmatism is no longer concerned solely with the nature of \u003cbr\u003eknowledge and the meaning of truth. Because of its \u003cbr\u003einsistence on critical self-awareness, its opposition to \u003cbr\u003eclosed systems of thought, and its concern with the ethical, \u003cbr\u003epolitical, and practical contexts of ideas, pragmatism offers \u003cbr\u003ea blueprint for performing intellectual work in a world \u003cbr\u003ewithout absolutes. The world Gunn's pragmatism recognizes is \u003cbr\u003eone of multiple truths, unstable interpretations, and \u003cbr\u003ecompeting interests. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAfter critically reexamining the nature and scope of the \u003cbr\u003epragmatic legacy, Gunn explores the way pragmatism \u003cbr\u003esuccessfully responds to conceptual and methodological \u003cbr\u003econtroversies, from the rebirth of ideology, the spread of \u003cbr\u003einterdisciplinarity, and the development of the new \u003cbr\u003ehistoricism, to the revolt against theory, the erosion of \u003cbr\u003epublic discourse, and the problematics of American civil \u003cbr\u003ereligion. Drawing throughout on the work of William James, \u003cbr\u003eHenry James, Sr., John Dewey, Kenneth Burke, W. E. B. Du \u003cbr\u003eBois, Richard Poirier, Stanley Cavell, Clifford Geertz, Frank \u003cbr\u003eLentricchia, Richard Rorty, Richard J. Bernstein, and \u003cbr\u003eothers, Gunn shows that pragmatism, because it offers a way \u003cbr\u003eof thinking across the categories of modern intellectual \u003cbr\u003especializations, is located at the intersection of these \u003cbr\u003ecritical, and often competitive, discourses. The postmodern \u003cbr\u003echallenge for the pragmatist thinker is not only how to \u003cbr\u003erender these different discourses conversible with one \u003cbr\u003eanother, but how to turn the salient insights of each into \u003cbr\u003eelements of a new democratic and critical public culture, one \u003cbr\u003eable to counter the twin threats of ideology and solipsism. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGiles Gunn is one of our most acclaimed contemporary critics, \u003cbr\u003eand this broad and ambitious book is certain to become one of \u003cbr\u003ethe central works in the current revival of critical \u003cbr\u003epragmatism and cultural studies. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57594940719478,"sku":"9780226310770","price":33.92,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9780226310770-thinking-across-the-american-grain-ideo","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}