{"title":"John J. Kaag","description":"John Kaag is a professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. He is the author of American Philosophy: A Love Story, which was an NPR Best Book of 2016 and a New York Times Editors' Choice. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Harper's Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, and many other publications. He lives outside Boston with his wife and children.","products":[{"product_id":"american-philosophy-a-love-story-paperback","title":"American Philosophy: A Love Story - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe epic wisdom contained in a lost library helps the author turn his life around\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eJohn Kaag is a dispirited young philosopher at sea in his marriage and his career when he stumbles upon West Wind, a ruin of an estate in the hinterlands of New Hampshire that belonged to the eminent Harvard philosopher William Ernest Hocking. Hocking was one of the last true giants of American philosophy and a direct intellectual descendent of William James, the father of American philosophy and psychology, with whom Kaag feels a deep kinship. It is James's question \"Is life worth living?\" that guides this remarkable book. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e The books Kaag discovers in the Hocking library are crawling with insects and full of mold. But he resolves to restore them, as he immediately recognizes their importance. Not only does the library at West Wind contain handwritten notes from Whitman and inscriptions from Frost, but there are startlingly rare first editions of Hobbes, Descartes, and Kant. As Kaag begins to catalog and read through these priceless volumes, he embarks on a thrilling journey that leads him to the life-affirming tenets of American philosophy--self-reliance, pragmatism, and transcendence--and to a brilliant young Kantian who joins him in the restoration of the Hocking books. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePart intellectual history, part memoir, \u003ci\u003eAmerican Philosophy\u003c\/i\u003e is ultimately about love, freedom, and the role that wisdom can play in turning one's life around.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51365899993311,"sku":"9780374537203","price":19.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/4kdddFJka09780374537203.webp?v=1789073670"},{"product_id":"american-bloods-the-untamed-dynasty-that-shaped-a-nation-hardcover","title":"American Bloods: The Untamed Dynasty That Shaped a Nation - Hardcover","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eAmerican Bloods\u003c\/i\u003e is an unflinching history of our nation . . . This is a breakout book for John Kaag--the natural extension of his genre-defining writing.\" --Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of \u003ci\u003eLeadership: In Turbulent Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Kaag has a knack of stumbling upon treasures . . . The result is a thrilling and illuminating tale.\" --John Banville, \u003ci\u003eThe New Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA history of a family spanning centuries and continents--one that unfolds into a new portrait of America.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Bloods were one of America's first and most expansive pioneer families. They explored and laid claim to the frontiers--geographic, political, intellectual, and spiritual--that would become the very core of the United States. John Kaag's \u003ci\u003eAmerican Bloods\u003c\/i\u003e is the account of a remarkable American family, of its participation in the making of a nation, and of how its members embodied the elusive ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. Inspired by the discovery of a mysterious manuscript in an old Massachusetts farmhouse, Kaag follows eight members of this family from the British Civil Wars in the seventeenth century through the founding of the colonies, the American Revolution, transcendentalism, the Industrial Revolution, the Civil War, and the rise of first-wave feminism, all the way to the beginning of the twentieth century. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe Bloods were active participants in virtually every pivotal moment in American history, coming into contact with everyone from Emerson and Thoreau to John Brown, Frederick Douglass, Victoria Woodhull, and William James. The genealogy of the family tracks the ebb and flow of what Thoreau called \"wildness,\" an original untamed spirit that would recede in the making of America but would never be extinguished entirely. \u003ci\u003eAmerican Bloods \u003c\/i\u003eis an enduring reminder of the risks and rewards that were taken in laying claim to the lands that would become the United States, and a composite portrait of America like no other.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51368281800927,"sku":"9780374103910","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/xdUr8f_Kat9780374103910.webp?v=1789125177"},{"product_id":"american-bloods-the-untamed-dynasty-that-shaped-a-nation-paperback","title":"American Bloods: The Untamed Dynasty That Shaped a Nation - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eAmerican Bloods\u003c\/i\u003e is an unflinching history of our nation . . . This is a breakout book for John Kaag--the natural extension of his genre-defining writing.\" --Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of \u003ci\u003eLeadership: In Turbulent Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Kaag has a knack of stumbling upon treasures . . . The result is a thrilling and illuminating tale.\" --John Banville, \u003ci\u003eThe New Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA history of a family spanning centuries and continents--one that unfolds into a new portrait of America.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Bloods were one of America's first and most expansive pioneer families. They explored and laid claim to the frontiers--geographic, political, intellectual, and spiritual--that would become the very core of the United States. John Kaag's \u003ci\u003eAmerican Bloods\u003c\/i\u003e is the account of a remarkable American family, of its participation in the making of a nation, and of how its members embodied the elusive ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. Inspired by the discovery of a mysterious manuscript in an old Massachusetts farmhouse, Kaag follows eight members of this family from the British Civil Wars in the seventeenth century through the founding of the colonies, the American Revolution, transcendentalism, the Industrial Revolution, the Civil War, and the rise of first-wave feminism, all the way to the beginning of the twentieth century. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe Bloods were active participants in virtually every pivotal moment in American history, coming into contact with everyone from Emerson and Thoreau to John Brown, Frederick Douglass, Victoria Woodhull, and William James. The genealogy of the family tracks the ebb and flow of what Thoreau called \"wildness,\" an original untamed spirit that would recede in the making of America but would never be extinguished entirely. \u003ci\u003eAmerican Bloods \u003c\/i\u003eis an enduring reminder of the risks and rewards that were taken in laying claim to the lands that would become the United States, and a composite portrait of America like no other.","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51368457666783,"sku":"9781250390356","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0813\/8958\/4607\/files\/OUqb3kyu4P9781250390356.webp?v=1789128457"}],"url":"https:\/\/blackandbarhe.com\/collections\/john-j-kaag.oembed","provider":"Black \u0026 Barhe Bookstore","version":"1.0","type":"link"}