Social Thought in America: The Revolt Against Formalism

Social Thought in America: The Revolt Against Formalism (Viking, 1949), by Morton White, Professor Emeritus in the School of Historical Studies, is a classic text of American intellectual history, which assesses the work of John Dewey, Thorstein Veblen, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Charles A. Beard and James Harvey Robinson and their collective opposition to formalist and deductive approaches to the study of philosophy, economics, law, politics and history. In his analysis, White critiques the similarities that exist between the views of these influential thinkers despite noted political differences, and reflects on the history of liberal social philosophy more generally.