The American Mind

By: Allen C. Guelzo, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Allen C. Guelzo

Length: 18 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

Americans pride themselves on being doers rather than thinkers, but ideas are at the very root of what it means to be an American. Behind this nation's diverse views on religion, education, social equality, democracy, and other vital issues is a long-running intellectual debate about the right ordering of the human, natural, and divine worlds.

Indeed, America is an enduring hotbed of ideas. Such great thinkers as Jonathan Edwards, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, William James, Martin Luther King, Jr., and many others engaged in lively and often contentious debate that helped mold America's institutions and attitudes. This immensely stimulating conversation made the United States what it is today - and provides the subject for these 36 fascinating lectures.

In this course, you will delve deeply into the philosophical underpinnings of the nation, forged by the Puritans and the leaders of the American Revolution. You will also explore many other aspects of the elaborate structure that became modern America, tracing ideas in politics, religion, education, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, literature, social theory, and science - proving that Americans have a much richer intellectual tradition than generally imagined. You'll learn about such philosophical movements as transcendentalism, pragmatism, and conservatism. You'll study the transatlantic philosophy of the Puritans, the spiritual revival of the Great Awakening, and the passion for reason sparked by the Enlightenment. And you'll trace the origin and evolution of America's colleges, which have served as a battleground of ideas, sometimes in an almost literal sense.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2005 The Teaching Company, LLC (P)2005 The Great Courses

This book is the ephin bomb!!!

This is exactly the lectures that you want to here. He covers every angle in a different light from what you have likely been taught before. The relationships of thoughts and history are absolutely fascinating!! Enjoy!!!

very illuminating

most engaging series. his condescending delivery is very appropriate when examining intulectuals since they always have a condescending attitude to the rest of humanity.

Great long view of America

Even at 18hours, not enough time for anything but an overview. But it did put our American history in perspective. May end up listening again if I get free time. Definitely worth time and money.

Required listening for any American

This audiobook is a map for anyone who may feel lost in modern political discourse, for anyone who wonders what it is that differentiates the United States from the rest of the world. A real treasure.

Continuity of the American Mind

A revelatory piece of handiwork: what may be seen as derivative of European thought is here seen on its own. It is not uncritical, and it doesn't play down the often fascinating but provincial and sometimes just plain weird Puritan roots, but at the same time the course manages to be moderately generous and expansive.Just when youbthink the lecturer is becoming tendentious, he surprises you. This is the intellectual equivalent of visiting Crystal Bridges.

Best American philosophy course

What an excellent overview of American philosophy. This course flows chronologically through the philosophical debates and schools of America and the broader Western world and connects all of these thoughts to the modern day.

You’ll find it’s just the beginning…

This was a great series of lectures that left me with a “to read” list. Be prepared to walk away with questions and a hunger to understand more.

Dr Guelzo kills it!

As a former new left enthusiast turned neo-conservative by way of Christian conversion, and as a former student of Dr Guelzo, I give this series of lectures a hearty Amen. Though I lack adequate historical knowledge that would give me a legitimate basis for passing judgment on the accuracy of the material presented, the past with which I am somewhat intimately familiar is clearly dead-on.. I appreciate Dr Guelzo's interesting teaching style and his deep and abiding commitment to scholarly research,. I love his love for all the interesting streams of American thought and experience. I can hardly wait to start another of Dr Guelzo's lecture series! Glenn Snyder

Fantastic Story About American Ideas

A fantastic and amazing story about the typically untold but hugely important ideas that shaped America

Exceptional intellectual history of America

Guelzo remains one of the best professors in the Great Courses series. His American Revolution series is phenomenal, and his organization of this course is no less remarkable. This is a great foundational voyage through American philosophy and theological thinking, while also analyzing history and its effect on the nation's conscience. I'd have liked more attention to be paid to civil rights and the last 50 years of history, but by now I trust Guelzo. He pays attention to thinkers we don't typically know, but whose ideas are instrumental to understanding the "bigger names" of history. A whole lecture on Reinhold Niebuhr feels abstract until you see MLK repeating him.