Puritans and Pragmatists

Paul Conkin's [volume] is a most extraordinary piece of work. The explication of each individual is first of all a rigorous philosophical analysis, grounded in epistemology and metaphysics and unflinching in its treatment of what historians tend to consider 'technical' problems. But Conkin also discusses well the less precise features of a man's outlook, including his social and moral attitudes; a concise but often illuminating sketch of his life and personality is supplied, and the whole is infused with a fine feeling for the beauty and adventures of human thought.

~John Higham, Johns Hopkins University

One can immediately grant the honesty and conviction [of this work], but the third quality that impresses the reader is a highly impressionistic style.

~A. Owen Alderidge, University of Illinois, Urbana

[Conkin's] book is a remarkable effort at synthesis and elucidation. The perennial nature of philosophy—nature, mind, reality, values, consciousness, and so forth—reappear in this impressive study of major American thinkers.

~John P. Diggins, University of California, Irvine