Ralph Waldo Emerson was a great moral philosopher and theorist of self-reliance and democratic individuality. During much of his life in the early 1800s, Emerson was considered a radical thinker. His opposition to established religious opinion and to slavery was considered scandalous. Emerson's deep commitment to individualism was at the root of his disdain, and his articulation of individualism was constant, whether aimed against the group mind, or at institutional constrictions. "Nietzsche was Emerson's best reader," and George Kateb provides an accessible reading of Emerson that is friendly to the interests of Nietzsche and to later Neitzscheans like Weber, Heidegger, Arendt, and Foucault. "Emerson, in George Kateb's engagingly lucid and compelling account, is the American Shakespeare. Kateb justifies this bold claim by demonstrating the poetic amplitude, incisiveness, impersonality, and authority of Emerson's thought. With Emerson, to be sure, the dramatist's characters are replaced by ideas, and one idea-"self-reliance"-dominates all the rest. The chief imperative for citizens of a democracy, according to Kateb's Emerson, is a steady effort to think one's own thoughts and to think them through. This radical principle defines the philosophy of democratic individuality, a distinctively modern creed whose founding genius-Kateb persuasively reveals-was Ralph Waldo Emerson." -Leo Marx, Massachusetts Institute of Technology "Emerson and Self-Reliance is written in a spirit as close to that of its subject as any commentary has ever come. With patience, with a severe clarity, and with beautifully chosen quotes, this book makes the case for Emerson as the founder of democratic individuality, and it is itself a proof that his thinking remains alive today." -David Bromwich, Yale University "This superb new book by George Kateb sets a new standard in the generosity it bestows on almost every aspect of Emerson's thinking." -American Literature This product is now available from: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Phone: 800-462-6420 Fax: 800-338-4550 http:\\www. rowmanlittlefield. com | Emerson and Self-Reliance by George Kateb, Paperback | Indigo Chapters