Louis Menand
Encyclopedia
Louis Menand is an American writer and academic, best known for his Pulitzer Prize
-winning book The Metaphysical Club
(2001), an intellectual and cultural history of late 19th and early 20th century America.
, and raised around Boston, Massachusetts. His mother was a historian, who wrote a biography of Samuel Adams
. Menand's father, Louis Menand III, taught political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
. His grandfather and great-grandfather owned the Louis Menand House
, listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in 1985. The village of Menands, New York, is named after his great-grandfather, a famous 19th Century horticulturalist.
A graduate of Pomona College
, Menand attended Harvard Law School
for one year (1973-1974) before he left to earn a Ph.D.
in English from Columbia University
in 1980.
and held staff positions at The New Republic
and The New Yorker
. He served as Distinguished Professor of English at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York
before accepting a post at Harvard in 2003.
Menand published his first book, Discovering Modernism: T. S. Eliot and His Context, in 1987. His long-anticipated second book, The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America
, includes detailed biographical material on Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
, William James
, Charles Sanders Peirce, and John Dewey
. It received the Pulitzer Prize for History
, the 2002 Francis Parkman Prize
, and The Heartland Prize for Non-Fiction. In 2002, Menand published American Studies, a collection of essays on prominent figures in American culture.
Menand is the Robert M. and Anne T. Bass Professor of English and American Literature and Language at Harvard University
. His principal field of academic interest is 19th and 20th century American cultural history. He contributes to The New Yorker
, for which he remains a staff writer, and The New York Review of Books
, among other publications.
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winning book The Metaphysical Club
The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America
The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America is a Pulitzer Prize-winning 2001 book by Louis Menand, an American writer and legal scholar...
(2001), an intellectual and cultural history of late 19th and early 20th century America.
Background and education
Menand was born in Syracuse, New YorkSyracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
, and raised around Boston, Massachusetts. His mother was a historian, who wrote a biography of Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams was an American statesman, political philosopher, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. As a politician in colonial Massachusetts, Adams was a leader of the movement that became the American Revolution, and was one of the architects of the principles of American...
. Menand's father, Louis Menand III, taught political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. His grandfather and great-grandfather owned the Louis Menand House
Louis Menand House
Louis Menand House is a historic home located at Menands, New York in Albany County, New York. It is a two story, Queen Anne style farmhouse with a cross gable roof and central chimney. The rear section was built about 1840 and the front section in 1881. It features fishscale shingles on the...
, listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1985. The village of Menands, New York, is named after his great-grandfather, a famous 19th Century horticulturalist.
A graduate of Pomona College
Pomona College
Pomona College is a private, residential, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. Founded in 1887 in Pomona, California by a group of Congregationalists, the college moved to Claremont in 1889 to the site of a hotel, retaining its name. The school enrolls 1,548 students.The founding member...
, Menand attended Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
for one year (1973-1974) before he left to earn a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in English from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in 1980.
Print and the Academy
Menand thereafter taught at Princeton UniversityPrinceton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
and held staff positions at The New Republic
The New Republic
The magazine has also published two articles concerning income inequality, largely criticizing conservative economists for their attempts to deny the existence or negative effect increasing income inequality is having on the United States...
and The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
. He served as Distinguished Professor of English at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
before accepting a post at Harvard in 2003.
Menand published his first book, Discovering Modernism: T. S. Eliot and His Context, in 1987. His long-anticipated second book, The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America
The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America
The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America is a Pulitzer Prize-winning 2001 book by Louis Menand, an American writer and legal scholar...
, includes detailed biographical material on Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932...
, William James
William James
William James was a pioneering American psychologist and philosopher who was trained as a physician. He wrote influential books on the young science of psychology, educational psychology, psychology of religious experience and mysticism, and on the philosophy of pragmatism...
, Charles Sanders Peirce, and John Dewey
John Dewey
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...
. It received the Pulitzer Prize for History
Pulitzer Prize for History
The Pulitzer Prize for History has been awarded since 1917 for a distinguished book upon the history of the United States. Many history books have also been awarded the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction and Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography...
, the 2002 Francis Parkman Prize
Francis Parkman Prize
The Francis Parkman Prize, named after Francis Parkman, is awarded by the Society of American Historians for the best book in American history each year. Its purpose is to promote literary distinction in historical writing...
, and The Heartland Prize for Non-Fiction. In 2002, Menand published American Studies, a collection of essays on prominent figures in American culture.
Menand is the Robert M. and Anne T. Bass Professor of English and American Literature and Language at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. His principal field of academic interest is 19th and 20th century American cultural history. He contributes to The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, for which he remains a staff writer, and The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
, among other publications.
Books
- Discovering Modernism: T. S. Eliot and his Context, 1987, New York: Oxford University Press
- The Future of Academic Freedom, (editor), 1996, Chicago: U of Chicago Press
- Pragmatism: A Reader, (editor), 1997, New York: Vintage
- The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America, 2001, New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, ISBN 0-374-19963-9 (hardcover), ISBN 0-374-52849-7 (paperback)
- American Studies, 2002, New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, ISBN 0-374-10434-4 (hardcover)
- The Marketplace of Ideas, 2010, New York: W. W. Norton, ISBN 978-0-393-06275-5
External links
- The Essential Menand : books, articles, and everything Louis Menand
- Harvard UniversityHarvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
Department of English faculty listing for Menand - CUNY profile of Menand (former faculty post)
- Menand's humorous exegesis of The Cat in the HatThe Cat in the HatThe Cat in the Hat is a children's book by Dr. Seuss and perhaps the most famous, featuring a tall, anthropomorphic, mischievous cat, wearing a tall, red and white-striped hat and a red bow tie. He also carries a pale blue umbrella...
on NPRNPRNPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
's All Things ConsideredAll Things ConsideredAll Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
(link to Windows MediaWindows MediaWindows Media is a multimedia framework for media creation and distribution for Microsoft Windows. It consists of a software development kit with several application programming interfaces and a number of prebuilt technologies, and is the replacement of NetShow technologies.The Windows Media SDK...
and RealMediaRealMediaRealMedia is a proprietary multimedia container format created by RealNetworks. Its extension is ".rm". It is typically used in conjunction with RealVideo and RealAudio and is used for streaming content over the Internet....
audio) - Louis Menand on writing -(in the New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
) - "Cat People: What Dr. Seuss really taught us" -(in the New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
) - Remembering the Last Hero Critique of Menand's New Yorker review of "Wild Bill Donovan" by Douglas Waller from The Harvard Crimson
- This Week in Media Rogues Article from The New York Observer about Louis Menand's review of "Wild Bill Donovan" in The New Yorker
Interviews
- Louis Menand on Reforming U.S. Universities from NPR's All Things Considered (Air Date: 1/18/10)
- Menand interview on The Metaphysical Club on All Things Considered (link to WM and RM audio)
- "New New York Intellectual: An Interview with Louis Menand" in the Minnesota Review, (June 1, 2001). archivedInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
URL retrieved August 10, 2006