Synopses & Reviews
In
Time in the Ditch, John McCumber explores the effect of McCarthyism on American philosophy in the 1940s and 1950s. The possibility that the political pressures of the McCarthy era might have skewed the development of the discipline has rarely been addressed in the subsequent half century. Why was silence maintained for so long? And what happens, McCumber asks, when political events and pressures go beyond interfering with individual careers to influence the nature of a discipline itself?
Description
Includes bibliograpical references (p. [193]-204) and index.
About the Author
German Department, Northwestern University
Table of Contents
Introduction -- Philosophy's family secret : the nature and impact of the McCarthy era -- We're all scientists here : early effects of the McCarthy era on American philosophy -- Has it stopped yet? : the McCarthy era's lasting effects on American philosophy -- Culture wars, culture bores : philosophy's absence from American academic culture -- Philosophy out of the ditch : a post-McCarthy paradigm.