In the Massey Lectures presented at Harvard, Irving Howe claims the essential Emerson, and the most abiding presence in our culture, to be the idealistic Emerson of the 1830s and 1840s. There are several 'Emersons,' and over the years his scripture has been invoked by ideologues of every stripe, from bellicose nationalists to sourdough spiritual recluses. The problem has been to define the significance and influence of the presence. Even the ghost-bashers know the spirit of Emerson belongs there, perhaps even rules the house. Worshippers commune with this protean spirit, while skeptics come flailing truncheons to drive the ghost from the house, but without success. For over a century, Emersonian transcendentalism has been an elusive ghost haunting the house of American culture. Cambridge Harvard University Press, 1986, $12.50. And that is hardly a way to 'rescue philosophy.' University of Otago, New ZealandPeter Leech TAe American Newness: Culture and Politics in the Age of Emerson, by Irving Howe 99 pp. This of course reveals his 'contest of faculties' as a hugely enigmatic affair: mystery contestants somehow engaged in a game with undeclared rules. In the end, this lack of clarity about disagreement is symptomatic of the entire book. What the nature of this disagreement is, however, is never made plain (unless it be, in an essay on Rorty, another of Norris's ad hominem rituals: 'Rorty's 'liberal' assumptions have a great deal in common with 'conservative' thinking on issues of culture and politics' ). Peculiarly, though, Norris begins by stating that 'nearly all the ideas in this book have been arrived at through disagreement with Rorty' (p. And indeed Rorty does gain favorable mention on occasion. Then there is Richard Rorty, whom one might suppose an ally for Norris in the enterprise of mutually accommodating philosophy and deconstruction. Reviews195 simple distinction between intrinsic properties of a medium and the aesthetic use to which the medium may be put. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Moments emerson drive age