The Battle for the American Mind: A Brief History of a Nation's Thought.

The Battle for the American Mind: A Brief History of a Nation's Thought. By Carl J. Richard. (Lanham, Md., and other cities: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., c. 2004. Pp. xviii, 357. $27.95, ISBN 0-7425-3435-9.)

Carl J. Richard's The Battle for the American Mind: A Brief History of a Nation's Thought is a provocative, well-written interpretation of American intellectual history "for general readers" that is designed to further discussion of ideas rather than answer all scholarly questions (p. ix). Richard divides American intellectual history chronologically into four periods, arguing that the American mind moved from the Christian theism of the colonial era, to the humanism of the American founding, to the skepticism of the early twentieth century, to the current "age of confusion."

"[T]heism provided the principal motivation for the colonization of America, shaped the culture of the American colonies, and helped cause the American Revolution" (p. 73). While acknowledging theological diversity in the colonies, Richard points out that roughly 75 percent of British North American colonists were "Center (or Reformed) Protestants," who professed doctrines of predestination, sola fide, sola scriptura, and the priesthood of all believers (p. 27). He identifies Puritanism, especially its belief in America's special mission in world history, and the Great Awakening as the major cultural and intellectual influences of the era. The colonial era, Richard believes, also witnessed a high degree of religious toleration, which influenced American intellectuals.

The heart of the book, based on Richard's excellent The Founders and the Classics: Greece, Rome, and the American Enlightenment (Cambridge, Mass., 1994), concerns the revival of classical humanism. Humanists, unlike theists, were "human-centered," "deemphasiz[ed] the existence of a utopian afterlife," and doubted that humans were "innately depraved" (p. xiii). The growing economic prosperity of the eighteenth century coupled with popular perceptions of scientific progress gave humanism credibility. Theism persisted, but Richard believes that humanism reshaped American Christianity by "undermining belief in the crucial doctrine of original sin" and promoting the idea of earthly progress (p. 73). Humanists secularized the Puritan sense of mission and developed an optimistic American nationalism, which, as a civil religion, replaced orthodox theism in American culture. The Founding Fathers mixed classical and modern philosophical ideas to build the nation, and, despite being Epicurean liberal humanists, they tended to appreciate the social utility of Protestantism. Richard finds "Platonic humanism"--the belief that humans possess an "innate tendency toward goodness"--to be the ideology of nineteenth-century reformers, especially the Transcendentalists (p. xiv). He also recounts the contentious intellectual debates among humanists over economic issues.

Skepticism prevented humanism's ultimate triumph. Whereas humanists and theists could cooperate because both believed in a universal moral order, skeptics "denied the existence of any moral order" and attacked humanist understandings of science, reason, and natural law (p. 237). Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, and the New Physics contributed to the revival of skepticism. Richard identifies American Pragmatism, in the ideas of William James and John Dewey, as an optimistic skepticism that pervaded the American mind. But various cultural movements, including the revival of both theism and humanism after World War II, denied skepticism complete victory. Richard notes that "the present age differs from previous eras not in the existence of the three philosophies but in the existence of large numbers of adherents of each philosophy simultaneously" (p. 332). He believes that the vitriolic "culture war" exists because of competition among the different philosophies (p. xvii).

Richard highlights Christian and Classical influences on the American mind. His thesis could be employed to explore ideas that unfortunately receive only brief mention in the book, particularly race and regionalism. The book would be a solid assignment for undergraduates and an informative study for the general reader, Richard's intended audience.

ADAM L. TATE 

Clayton State University