Rethinking Intellectual History

Ideas have a role in history, but what is it?

Most people who call themselves intellectual historians, or who describe their work as intellectual history, do their best not to answer that question too directly. In this newsletter, I want to pursue that question, not so much with the intention of answering it, but of eliminating the worst attempts to dodge it or to answer it partially, unrigorously.

This newsletter is, in other words, a kind of mobile, evolving methodological essay, an experiment in form. I want it to be truly open to revision, reconsideration, and discovery—I don’t have a particular end or answer in mind.

Welcome to the journey, then!