Books by Louis Menand

The Cold War was not just a contest of power. It was also about ideas, in the broadest sense - economic and political, artistic and personal.

Here are the major texts of American pragmatism, from William James, John Dewey, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Charles Sanders Peirce to Cornell West, Richard Rorty, Hilary Putnam, Richard Posner, and Richard Poirier, now collected and reprinted unabridged. All are remarkable for the wit and vigor of their prose and the mind-clearing force of their ideas. They reflect the vital role that pragmatism has played in almost every area of American intellectual and cultural life, inspiring judges, educators, politicians, poets, and social prophets. Edited and introduced by Louis Menand, Pragmatism: A Reader is an invaluable resource-and an absorbing read-for everyone who is interested in American culture.

In this text nine leading academics consider the problems confronting the American university in terms of their effect on the future of academic freedom.

Has American higher education become a dinosaur?