Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century

From Freud to Babbitt, from Animal Farm to Sartre, from the Theory of Relativity and the Great Society to Counterculture and Kosovo, The Modern Mind is an extraordinary, provacative, and brilliantly reasoned examination of the ideas and individuals that have shaped the 20th-century intellectual tradition. Focusing on all the great and many lesser-known individuals, break-throughs, and events of Western culture, Peter Watson explores the role of the United States in setting the century's agenda and emphasizes the effect science has played in intellectual history. Writing with authority and verve, Watson has produced a fluent, engaging, and intelligent look at the recent past—an illuminating blueprint of modern thought and culture more than 10 years in the making. For readers of Jacques Barzun, Paul Johnson, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Paul Kennedy, The Modern Mind is the perfect historical companion.

About the Author:
Peter Watson is the author of War on the Mind, The Caravaggio Conspiracy, Nureyev, and several novels. He currently writes for the Observer, Times(London), New York Times, and the Spectator. He lives in London. England.