Contingency Blues: The Search for Foundations in American Criticism

Focusing on the clash between pragmatism and foundationalism, this book explores the implications of these debates for American cultural criticism since Emerson. Blending intellectual history with cultural critique, it aims to liberate American thought from its nineteenth-century constraints and address contemporary issues of legitimacy in modernity. The work provokes readers to reconsider the relevance of historical perspectives in shaping current cultural conversations.