An American Friendship: Horace Kallen, Alain Locke, and the Development of Cultural Pluralism

by David Weinfeld

Overview

In An American Friendship, David Weinfeld presents the biography of an idea, cultural pluralism, the intellectual precursor to modern multiculturalism. He roots its origins in the friendship between two philosophers, Jewish immigrant Horace Kallen and African American Alain Locke, who advanced cultural pluralism in opposition to both racist nativism and the assimilationist "melting pot." It is a simple idea—different ethnic groups can and should coexist in the United States, perpetuating their cultures for the betterment of the country as whole—and it grew out of the lived experience of this friendship between two remarkable individuals.

Kallen, a founding faculty member of the New School for Social Research, became a leading American Zionist. Locke, the first Black Rhodes Scholar, taught at Howard University and is best known as the intellectual godfather of the Harlem Renaissance and the editor of The New Negro in 1925. Their friendship began at Harvard and Oxford during the years 1906 through 1908 and was rekindled during the Great Depression, growing stronger until Locke's death in 1954. To Locke and Kallen, friendship itself was a metaphor for cultural pluralism, exemplified by people who found common ground while appreciating each other's differences. Weinfeld demonstrates how this understanding of cultural pluralism offers a new vision for diverse societies across the globe. An American Friendship provides critical background for understanding the conflicts over identity politics that polarize US society today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781501763090
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	05/15/2022
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David Weinfeld is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and World Religions at Rowan University. Follow him on X @daveweinfeld

What People are Saying About This

Marjorie N. Feld

"In An American Friendship, Weinfeld offers an interesting look at a fascinating topic that grows more relevant by the day as debates over BDS, American Zionism, and white supremacy fill the news."

Esther Schor

Alain Locke and Horace Kallen, together and apart, set culture at the heart of identity and pluralism at the heart of democracy. Weinfeld's essential book probes the roots of multiculturalism in a friendship as formative for us as it was for Locke and Kallen.

Dennis C. Dickerson

Persuasively presented and compellingly conceptualized, David Weinfeld's An American Friendship offers a distinctive contribution to the literature on Alain Locke and Horace Kallen, centering their scholarly and cultural interaction like no other book has.

Editorial Reviews

Weinfeld's work suggests that future histories of Jews in the United States might say considerably more, specifically, about Locke, Oxford, and the Harlem Renaissance, as well as more generally about the influences of African diaspora thinkers in their field.

American Literary History

This highly accessible and well-written book illuminates co-creative dimensions between minorities in this period of intense renewal.

American Jewish History

David Weinfeld's crisply written, meticulously researched book, An American Friendship: Horace Kallen, Alain Locke, and the Development of Cultural Pluralism, contributes to our understanding of this inter-ethnic bond and collaborative tradition.

Society for U.S Intellectual History

An American Friendship is a groundbreaking work that illuminates the transformative power of friendship across cultural divides. A captivating journey through the intertwined lives and minds of two intellectual giants. Weindfeld's book is a powerful testament to the enduring importance of Kallen and Locke's intellectual and personal legacy. A timely and compelling vision of how we might build a more inclusive and equitable society, one friendship at a time.

Black Perspectives

A complement to the scholarly literature on the formation of the influential conceptual alternative to the melting pot, Weinfeld's book is the most explicit effort to incorporate a Black perspective into an early 20th- century story about the redefinition of America, a story in which Jewish writers and thinkers such as Israel Zangwill, Judah P. Magnes, and Mary Antin have rightly enjoyed featured roles.

Studies in Contemporary Jewry

An American Friendship is a groundbreaking work that illuminates the transformative power of friendship across cultural divides. A captivating journey through the intertwined lives and minds of two intellectual giants. Weindfeld's book is a powerful testament to the enduring importance of Kallen and Locke's intellectual and personal legacy. A timely and compelling vision of how we might build a more inclusive and equitable society, one friendship at a time.

AAIHS (African American Intellectual History Society)