Claire Rydell Arcenas, Americaโs Philosopher: John Locke in American Intellectual Life โ University of Chicago Press, 2022
The influence of polymath philosopher John Locke (1632โ1704) can still be found in a dizzying range of fields, as his writings touch on issues of identity, republicanism, and the nature of knowledge itself. Claire Rydell Arcenasโs new book tells the story of Americansโ longstanding yet ever-mutable obsession with this English thinkerโs ideas, a saga whose most recent manifestations have found the so-called Father of Liberalism held up as a right-wing icon.
The first book to detail Lockeโs trans-Atlantic influence from the eighteenth century until today,ย Americaโs Philosopherย shows how and why interpretations of his ideas have captivated Americans in ways few other philosophersโfrom any nationโever have. As Arcenas makes clear, each generation has essentially remade Locke in its own image, taking inspiration and transmuting his ideas to suit the needs of the particular historical moment. Drawing from a host of vernacular sources to illuminate Lockeโs often contradictory impact on American daily and intellectual life from before the Revolutionary War to the present, Arcenas delivers a pathbreaking work in the history of ideas.
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