This thoughtful, sensitive, fascinating study of a thoughtful, sensitive, fascinating woman revives an almost forgotten American philosopher. John Kaag's account of the life and work of Ella Lyman Cabot locates her in relation to her better-known contemporaries, traces the development of her thought, narrates details of her remarkable marriage, and compellingly argues for the importance of her ideas. His penetrating analysis also supports his own argument for the value of philosophical thought that is grounded in and useful for daily experience and of the kind of practical idealism that Cabot's work embodies.

Patricia Meyer Spacks, Edgar Shannon Professor of English Emerita, University of Virginia

As one who has long identified with idealistic pragmatism and feminism, I highly recommend this engaging and well-researched book. It goes far to reduce a significant gap in the literature of classical American philosophy.

Mary Briody Mahowald, University of Chicago

John Kaag succeeds brilliantly in presenting Ella Lyman Cabot as an original philosopher in her own right, and as a conversation partner with leading intellectuals of her day. He skillfully places the achievements and tensions in her thought within intellectual, historical, and biographical contexts. The scholarship is meticulous and imaginative; the writing elegant and gracious. Kaag thoroughly justifies Cabot's inclusion as a significant philosopher and feminist theorist in American intellectual thought.

Marilyn Fischer, University of Dayton

Idealism, Pragmatism, and Feminism is really a must read for anyone interested in American philosophy and it makes an important contribution to the contemporary process of expanding the cannon of significant thinkers in the pragmatist tradition.

Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews