New Detours in American Intellectual History

Abstract

US intellectual history is at something of a crossroads. Situated between the longstanding methodological debates of its disciplinary past and current aspirations for a more diverse, democratic, and inclusive future, the recent works surveyed in this essay suggest a field in transition. Once dismissed as elitist—as being exclusively interested in the lives and writings of dead, white males, for example—intellectual history now encompasses an ever-widening range of topics and concerns. It is far more interdisciplinary, far more transnational, and far more interested in popular culture than it has ever been before, but whether the new pathways currently being charted by a new generation of scholars will allow intellectuals to continue to thrive in an increasingly restructured and underfunded academic setting remains to be seen.