Young Sidney Hook

by Christopher Phelps

Of great relevance to contemporary debates about socialism and democracy, Young Sidney Hook reopens the controversial question of the relationship between Marxism and pragmatism. In the first biography of philosopher Sidney Hook to be published since his death in 1989, Christopher Phelps vividly describes the neglected early thought and political history of this important New York intellectual, pragmatist philosopher, and anti-Stalinist polemicist. Throughout the Cold War decades, Hook was a notoriously strident anti-communist. But in his earlier life, he had a very different career as a talented radical philosopher and Marxist scholar who argued for replacing capitalism with a more democratic society. Challenging scholars on both the left (who see Hook's early beliefs as ill-conceived) and the right (who see them as immature), Phelps explores the contributions young Hook made to social theory, ethics, politics, epistemology, and discussions of scientific method.