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.

Vincent Colapietro, University of Rhode Island

Hegelian dialectics moves in the undercurrents of American philosophy, driven by a host of almost-forgotten thinkers who reinterpreted Hegelianism for their times. Johnson’s resurrection of three of these thinkers reveals their force in a voice so spirited that his exposition proves both instructive and a joy to read.

Katie Terezakis, professor of philosophy, Rochester Institute of Technology