Individualism and Its Discontents : Appropriations of Emerson, 1880-1950

The work of Ralph Waldo Emerson has been synonymous with the American ideals of self-reliance and individualism. This book explores that intertwined history, and how Emerson has come to be identified as the source of both the best and worst in the American intellectual tradition. This book explores the intertwined history of Emerson and individualism. Charles E. Mitchell begins by examining those who regarded Emersonian individualism with ambivalence or hostility, focusing on the comments of such diverse figures as Henry James, Sr., Oliver Wendell Holmes, Van Wyck Brooks, and H. L. Mencken. He then offers an alternative view as reflected in the work of William James, John Dewey, W. E. B. Du Bois, and William Carlos Williams. Each of these figures embraced Emerson's claim for the sanctity of the individual and wove it into a social vision that sought to reconcile the paradox at the heart of American life: a simultaneous devotion to the community and the individual, tradition and innovation, order and freedom. Pursing the variously-interpreted legacy of Ralph Waldo Emerson as the embodiment of American individualism, Mitchell (American studies, Elmira College) positions Emerson's champions (e.g. William James, Dewy, and W.E.B. DuBois), who had no difficulty in reconciling the poet's vision of the self-reliant individual with democratic ideals, against detractors such as Henry James, Sr. and Oliver Wendell Holmes who denounced his egotism. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.