Rating: 
Summary: Deeply Moving, Sophisticated
Review: I first "stumbled" upon this book while browsing the nonfiction area of a local bookstore. At the same time, Prof.Louis Menand was visiting my college and I attended his lecture out of pure chance. He was a very inspirational and highly sophisticated speaker, and so I read his book as soon as I could get a hold of it. The Metaphysical Club, which received the Pulitzer Prize in history, brims with Louis Menand's unparalleled sophistication and remarkable capacity for story-telling and conveying rich ideas. He describes the lives and works of the founders of the American idea of pragmatism: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Peirce, William James, and John Dewey. The book itself is no light reading, and often requires careful analysis and introspection. In addition to the fact that the hardcover copy of the book is over 400 pages,I sometimes have to keep up with not getting confused by the names of the characters because he mostly refers to their last names, even when speaking of either the father and his son. Nevertheless, Menand's book was a delightful read because not only does he manage to bring intricate ideas with much lucidity, he also paints a colorful cast of real characters - replete with their own unique personalities, habits, and emotions.
Rating: 
Summary: accessible to all!
Review: A Story of Ideas in America runs from the Civil War through 1919 through the thoughts of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., William James, Charles Sanders Pierce & John Dewey who all, along with many others, belonged to an informal discussion group that met in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1872. Reading how our ancestors thought about the things we take, nowadays, for granted. I do encourage you to also discover how our fields of beliefs came about:-
how we accept volunteerism;
why we think of freedom the way we do;
why we are a nation of storekeepers;
why we think of our government & our politicians the way we do.
Why do we think the way we do;
why do we allow ourselves that luxury so few people in this world are permitted - & it has nothing to do with money, class or religion. Learning to think about thinking - about ideas - listening to them, following their trains of thought & arriving at where they alit. I commend Professor Menand for making The Metaphysical Club wholly accessible to this Jane Doe & wholly fascinating!
Rating:
Summary: intellectual history intertwined with the life and work of 4
Review: 09:57 pm - book review _The Metaphysical Club_ This represents the completion of a partial book for me, started months ago as a part of an online book club, and finished as the issues popped up again in the context of the study of worldviews. It is an unusually good and interesting book, worthy of winning the Pulitzer prize. It is a combination of intellectual history and the biography of multiple people. For what the author does is to trace several philosophic movements basically from the Civil War through roughly 1920, from the vantage point of 4 friends, hence the title, where these lives touched. The overall theme of the book is explicit on the first page of the introduction, in reference to the American Civil War he says "but in almost every other respect, the United States became a different country. the war alone did not make America modern, but the war marks the birth of modern America." This is truely the take home message of the book, done with sympathy for those who came home from the war and were deeply changed as a result of their experiences and for those who did not come home, whose absence and missing contributions were sorely missed by at least 3 generations(their parents, their siblings and their children). The four people are: Oliver Wendell Holmes, William James, Charles S. Pierce and John Dewey. The main areas of the culture they influenced greatly are obviously: the law, psychology, pragmatism, and education respectively. But neither their names nor the fields of endeavor they dominated for so many years are adequate summaries of either their lives or their work. That is the purpose of this book, to elaborate, to explain, to tie threads together, between these 4 men and their life contributions to our intellectual culture. The author does so with a sympathy that is born out of deep and thoughtful study. It strikes me as a book that is a passion, not just a writing to make money. A work of love and desire to understand the people and the times they lived through. This is reflected in a number of places i simply stopped and marvelled at the insight and understanding the author shared with me. It is not a difficult read, it is the author's desire to reach a wide audience, it is philosophic in places but not excessive to the average reader, with the accent on the inter-relationship dynamics of these men with those around them. The presentation of ideas is slipped in between letters, meetings or the establishment of groups, as they go about their efforts in universities or writing. As justification for actions and the understanding of paths taken and those not taken as a result of thinking about the big issues and their interaction with the spirit of the age. It is for this reason the book is significant, for it catches the spirit of several generations and ties together threads of history that i had previously thought independent. For these 4 men are not just reflective of this spirit but exponents and creative thinkers who fashioned it and drove it down the paths it took, rather than alternatives, especially ones dominant before the war. Two intellectual themes that i found interesting an most instructive are pragmatism and the civility necessary for pluralism, both developed in chapters of their own at the very end of the book, but introduced again and again as the issues surrounding them crop up differently yet with the same overall influence in each man's life. I found the first chapters on O.W.Holmes the most fasinating, and would recommend chapter 3 -- "the Wilderness and After" with the last paragraphs especially poigant. "And then he had watched the world bleed to death at Fredericksburg and Antietam, in a war that learning and brillance had been powerless to prevent. ... for he never forgot what he had lost. 'He talk me,' Einstein reported 'that after the Civil War the world never seemed quite right again.'"[pg 69] It is to this chapter i would direct your attention for a quick read to get a flavor of the book to decide to invest the time for the whole read.
Rating:
Summary: A Club for All Times
Review: Louis Menand - The Metaphysical Club At the heart of "The Metaphysical Club" is the American Civil War, an epochal event which split America in two and forever scarred a generation of Americans. It was so profound an experience that many Americans would, like Oliver Wendell Holmes (one of the four "members" of the Metaphysical Club), drink libations each year in memory to their fallen countrymen. Such an experience rendered the old modes of thinking about life obsolete and after the Civil War Americans were in search of new ideas through which they might interpret and understand their existance and the society in which they lived. The discovery and development of these ideas is principal concern of Menand's book. Pragamatism is the philosophy most closely connected to the post-war American generation, and it is around this philosophy which Menand constructs his narrative. Menand carefully shows how each of pragmatism's four principal developers (the four members of the Metaphysical Club, Holmes, Charles Pierce, William James, and John Dewey) contributed to making it a uniquely American response to the challenge posed by a new era. And what a new era it was. Post Civil War America was filled with startling ideas such as evolution, determinism, psychoanalysis, and statistics. As Louis Agassiz, whose lectures on the superiority of the white race were delivered to packed audiences, could tell you Americans were fascinated by these ideas, some of which were used to solidify old myths, while others arose and threatened to overturn some of the most basic assumptions of human understanding. Menand skillfully relates these important ideas and draws on historical events to illustrate the logic and impact these new thoughts had on American society. Portraits of the lives and times of the four principal figures in the development of American pragmatism - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Charles Pierce, William James, and John Dewey - are well-drawn and robust. The personal development of these four principals is traced, examining the events and conditions that helped build each man's pragmatist philosophy. Menand is concerned not only with telling each man's story, but in examining how each came to discover pragmatism for himself. The last section of the book unites each man's tale, bringing the four lives together in a beautiful synthesis of understanding and revelation. Although these four figures are the focus of "The Metaphysical Club", Menand's book also creates a compelling picture of the post-Civil War generation by bringing alive several tributary characters including the eugenist Louis Agassiz, Charles Pierce's father, Benjamin, William James' brother and father, Henry and Henry, Sr., respectively, humanitarian Jane Addams, and the socialist Eugene Debs. The narrative is filled with interesting, even at times thrilling, anecdotes featuring these characters, each of which illustrate some crucial fact or idea. Overall Menand's book points to where we (America) as a society have been and where he believes we are headed. The strong reception this book has received speaks to how many people agree with his analysis. After reading The Metaphysical Club do not be surprised to find yourself discovering that the very same ideas that captivated Americans of the post Civil War generation still figure most prominently into contemporary America.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Introduction to Post Civil War American Thought
Review: Both the editorial review and many of the individual reviews have mentioned that this is a study of four principal figures of pragmatism: Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., William James, Charles Sanders Peirce, and John Dewey. That depiction is, however, incomplete and misleading. THE METAPHYSICAL CLUB is, as the subtitle proclaims, a study of ideas in America. While it is true that these four individuals are the lynchpins around which much of the story revolves, Menand keeps in mind one of the main doctrines held by all these thinkers, that the social is more primary than the individual. This book is a study of the intellectual life of late nineteenth century America as a whole, and while Holmes, James, Sanders, and Dewey provide much of the focus, their individual stories do not exhaust the tale that Menand is trying to tell. Menand provides a brilliant portrait of the intellectual life of America in the post-Civil War era. The story is told from a generalist and not a specialist point of view. If one is interested in pragmatism, this provides the background and an outline of an introduction to the subject. As historical background, this book is unsurpassed. But it is crucial to keep in mind that it is background, not foreground. It does not begin to rival, for instance, such studies as Murry Murphy's tragically out of print study of Peirce's thought, or Gerald Myer's biography of James, or Bruce Kuklick's study of the development of American Philosophy. Apart from the works of the figures themselves, these are the secondary works to which one would go for greater depth on the subject. But none of these works provides Menand's delicious breadth. The number of subjects that Menand takes up is stunning. In some 440 pages he deals with such a variety of topics as abolitionism, slavery, Daniel Webster, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Emerson, the American reception of and reaction to Darwin, Louis Agassiz, Jane Addams, the Pullman Strike, W.E.B. DuBois, Alain Locke, Franz Boas, Benjamin Peirce, Chauncey Wright, theories of race, Boston societal structure, the development of the American university, several key decisions by the Supreme Court, Swendenborg, 19th Century conceptions of laissez-faire, the development of probability, the rise of statistical thinking, and a host of other issues. But what is striking is how well Menand integrates each new individual or idea with the rest of the work. He never introduces anyone just in order to chat about them; in each instance the introduction deepens and enhances the issue at hand. Each new idea helps take the story to the next stage. Finally, I want to point out just how marvelously well written this book is. The prose is never less than utterly clear; it frequently rises to the level of exhilarating. It is not just that the book tells a story that deserves telling. The book is so well written that it is flat out fun. It is the nearest thing to an intellectual page turner as one is likely to find. The book is also enhanced by a number of superb photographs of all the principal characters.
Rating:
Summary: An enthralling, entertaining, enlightening story of ideas in
Review: Louis Menand's exhaustively researched The Metaphysical Club describes the life and times of a handful of prominent American intellectuals from the Civil War era to the World War era, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and philosopher William James. Menand is ultimately successful in his primary aim, which is to show how abstract philosophical ideas can have a major impact on the quality of life experienced by everyday people. Menand's narrative path encompasses many side journeys, sometimes not appearing to advance towards the end goal, and it is not until the last seventh of the book that we get treated to an overall description of the philosophy of pragmatism. The doings of the Cambridge Metaphysical Club are briefly summarized almost halfway through the book, and the reader at that point learns that the club itself is not (although it is the title of the book) what made the major impact on society; rather, it is what some of the club's members did over the course of many subsequent decades that changed American society. The great pleasure in reading The Metaphysical Club comes from following Menand on these many side journeys, thereby learning about a cornucopia of subjects, from the politics of slavery, abolition and the Civil War, to what pre-Civil War proper Boston Brahmin society was like, to the impact that Darwin's ideas on evolution had, to the Dartmouth College case and the founding of the modern private American university, to the Pullman car strike, to the initial battles to establish the principle of academic freedom, all underscored with a recurring discussion of race attitudes over the decades. If this list appears to be a bit of a grab-bag of subjects, that impression prevails while reading the book: although it is all connected, you never quite know what subject Menand is going to explore next. The Metaphysical Club is not the final authority on any of these subjects; rather, it is a top-quality survey work. The subtitle describes the book better than the title: it truly is "a story of ideas in America". It's not "the" definitive story; Menand is exercising his right to explore brief portions of subjects of interest to him and germane to the storyline. But if you are willing to grant him this authorial license, and not protest the course he chooses, then you will be enthralled, entertained, and enlightened. As a work of history (it won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for history), Menand also succeeds in providing a great deal of context about the state of the world his subjects were living in, so that we 21st century readers can "see how almost unimaginably strange they and their world were, too." While there are certain timeless truths that were generated by these thinkers, it is also instructive to see just how much they were a product of their times, which (of course) applies equally as well to us, today.
Rating:
Summary: Is Political Correctness a Metaphysical Game?
Review: The Metaphysical Club--founded about the time of the American Civil War, brought together some of the best minds of the 19th century. Some were foreign-born scholars, some became quite well-known intellectuals and academics in their own right. ALL had a tremendous impact on thinking "distinctly American" that formed the foundation of doctrines such as Manifest Destiny, and fear of the "Mexicanization" of America that continues today. This book is neither easy nor light reading, and will take some time for even the most ardent student of history generally to wade through. It has to be considered a basic text for anyone interested in intellectual history. It is without doubt an important work--especially for anyone who today wishes to understand what the rest of the world has thought of or thinks is "American Culture". Obviously, this is more complex than simplification of American expansionism as imperialism disguised as altruism. Nor is it the Culture of the Cowboy, the rugged individualist. However, at the same time that great Armies were further defining the "United States" on great battlefields, on American soil, so too were great Thinkers defining Americanism in precursors of "think tanks" where today the media would seek out people who "really" had something to say about our society. These were the precursors of the George Wills, the Pat Buchanans, the Sam Donaldsons of our era. While the names will be unfamiliar to some, and the personalities and characters even odd [sic] (even the great William James, M.D., who never practiced medicine, took a significant role)...you will become engaged with the intelligentsia of the United States that predated the Wilsonians of the early 20th century, or the Communists, Socialists, and fellow travelers of the middle 20th century....the Neo-Cons of our time. You'll wonder what has been lost, and how the era of Political Correctness could ever have devolved from this period of intense intellectual activity occurring at a time when even the causes of disease and infection were unknown, and theories of genetics were in their infancy. Yet "The Metaphysical Club" was a magnet for great thinking. A great read for the reader who likes a real challenge!
Rating:
Summary: A delightful, well-written study of ideas in the late 19th c
Review: Louis Menand is a fine writer. With a pen that merits his frequent contributions to the New Yorker and other magazines, he is also an erudite and lover of knowledge. In this book, he gives an interesting overview of ideas in the late 19th century in the US. Unlike what the blurb says, this book is about more than just the "Metaphysical club" where James, Pierce, Holmes and Dewey met and talked; in fact, this club was short-lived. But Menand uses this as a core around which he traces the ideas of these four great men and the others who inspired them and who they inspired. From Emerson in Concord through the early 20th century, this book examines some of the finest minds in one of America's most fertile periods. I would have liked to see more about James - arguably the most important thinker presented in the book - and a bit less density in some of the explanations of different philosophical systems. But the book is well-written, interesting, and Menand gives the right balance of ideas and events to help you understand this powerful period in the history of American thought. I'd give it another half-star if I could; my only regret is the occasional dense passage that cuts away the rhythym of the narrative.
Rating:
Summary: Great (but that depends on how you look at 'great')
Review: A fairly fast-paced history that follows the trail of Pragmatism from its origin onward via biographical sketches of the men involved in forming it. As has already been noted in other reviews, this is a book that you could probably spend months and months sifting through due to the density of the subject matter. The author does an excellent job of shedding light on other subjects during the era, like slavery and the racial theories of prominent scientists. Let me assure you, if you look at the past through the views that most of us hold today, there were few men in any part of the country that didn't hold views on race to make you cringe. For example, as silly as it might seem now, the most serious scientists of their time were divided as to whether or not the white and black races evolved from one common ancestor or evolved entirely independent of one another...i.e., we were created differently from day one. It's this very thing that shows reveals the beauty of science as something that builds on itself via verifiable data and, once your ideas fail the test, they go directly and swiftly into the dustbin of history. Philosophical systems not being something that spring into someone's head fully formed, Menand does a great job tracing all of the twists and turns that ultimately lead to what we refer to as the philosophy of Pragmatism. This book was much broader in scope than I thought it would be and intensely interesting in many ways. You'll likely add bios of Oliver Wendell Holmes, William James & John Dewey to your wish-list after reading this.
Rating: 
Summary: One star is too many
Review: This book is terrible. The author gets hung up on details of minor characters lives and never really make his point. Save your money and avoid it.
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