Three American Hegels

Ryan J. Johnson is associate professor and chair of the philosophy department at Elon University. He specializes in twentieth-century continental philosophy; critical philosophy of race; Spinoza, Hegel, and Nietzsche; and Ancient Greek and Roman philosophy.

• IntroductionPart I: Henry C. Brokmeyer: “The Translator of Frontier Hegelianism”Chapter 1: Brokmeyer & The St. Louis HegeliansChapter 2: Brokmeyer’s Wissenschaft der LogikChapter 3: Brokmeyer’s Frontier HegelianismPart II: Horace Williams: “The Mentor of Southern Hegelianism”Chapter 4: Horace, An IntroductionChapter 5: Honeysuckle Hegel Chapter 6: Dialectical with a DrawlPart III: John William Miller: “The Teacher of the Metaphysics of Democracy”Chapter 7: The Act and ActualityChapter 8: ResponsibilityChapter 9: Concrete Universality and the MidworldConclusionBibliographyIndexAbout the Author

Ryan Johnson has accomplished what would appear to be impossible. In this erudite, engaging, and truly philosophical study, he made three obscure figures not only come vividly alive but also unmistakably salient to an America removed from their own in terms of years and other respects. In these pages lies a distinct Hegelian vision of the United States, three unmistakably Americanized versions of Hegel, and a communal self-understanding in which unresolved contractions and conflicts are the driving force of a collective endeavor ever at risk of imploding.