Existential America

Contrary to Europeans' view of Americans as optimistic and materialistic, Cotkin (history, California Polytechnic State U.) argues that the existentialist approach to life has deep American roots. He explores how America is heir to a rich tradition of thinkers, from Melville to William James, who wrestled with the problems of existence and contingency in the world long before Sartre and his colleagues. Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Hazel E. Barnes

As a richly detailed account of the reception of existentialism in America, this book is unequaled. But it is more than the history of a particular philosophical movement. Cotkin explores the independent expressions of what he calls 'the Existentialist mood' in the work of Americans anticipating or paralleling the thought of European writers. Impeccable in its scholarship, Existential America is also a delight to read. The writing is lively and engaging and reveals, where appropriate, its author's ironic sense of humor.

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.