The Life of the Mind in America
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Victor Nuovo: James Fenimore Cooper’s America
Ninth in a series. James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) was an American writer who chronicled rural life from the Revolution through the first half of the 19th century. I…
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Victor Nuovo: Plato and the rule of law
Eighth in a series. Not long after he finished writing “The Republic” Plato, changed his mind — or so it seems. This happens often among philosophers, but when…
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Victor Nuovo: More enlightenment from Plato’s ‘Republic’
Seventh in a series. This essay continues my Platonic digression on the theme of a moral universe. A moral universe is one in which Good is as basic…
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Victor Nuovo: Plato and the moral universe
Editor’s note: Sixth in a series. The previous essay concluded on a new note: the idea of a moral universe, and I have returned to Plato as my…
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Victor Nuovo: A platonic digression
The title of this essay calls for an explanation. Four weeks ago, I began a series entitled “The Life of the Mind in America.” This essay, the fifth…
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Victor Nuovo: The mind of Jonathan Edwards
It is regrettable that Jonathan Edwards (1703–58) is mostly remembered for a sermon, “Sinners in the hands of an angry God.” As his biographer Perry Miller once remarked,…
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Victor Nuovo: The first Great Awakening
Editor’s note: Third in a series. A variety of motives caused Europeans to hazard crossing the Atlantic Ocean to settle in America 300 years ago. For some, it…
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Victor Nuovo: The American Sublime
Editor’s note: This is the second in a series called “The Life of the Mind in America.”Perry Miller did not live to complete “The Life of the Mind…
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Victor Nuovo: Discovering what America means
This essay begins a new series about American intellectual history. I have entitled it “The Life of the Mind in America,” which is the title of an unfinished…