Louis Menand (/ˈluːiməˈnɑːnd/;^[1] born January 21, 1952) is an American critic, essayist, and professor who wrote the Pulitzer-winning bookThe Metaphysical Club (2001), an intellectual and cultural history of late 19th- and early 20th-century America.^[2]

Menand was born inSyracuse, New York, and raised aroundBoston, Massachusetts. His mother, Catherine (Shults) Menand, was a historian who wrote a biography ofSamuel Adams. His father, Louis Menand III, taught political science at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology. His grandfather and great-grandfather owned theLouis Menand House, located inMenands, New York, and listed on theNational Register of Historic Places in 1985.^[3] The village of Menands is named after his great-grandfather, a 19th-century horticulturist.

A 1973 graduate ofPomona College,^[4] Menand attendedHarvard Law School for one year (1973–1974) before he left to earnMaster of Arts (1975) andPhD (1980) degrees in English fromColumbia University.

He thereafter taught atPrinceton University and held staff positions atThe New York Review of Books (contributing editor 1994–2001) andThe New Republic (associate editor 1986–1987). He has contributed toThe New Yorker since 1991 and remains a staff writer. In 1988 he was appointed a Distinguished Professor of English at theGraduate Center of the City University of New York, and in 1990 he was awarded aGuggenheim Fellowship. He left CUNY to accept a post in the English Department atHarvard University in 2003. He has also taught at Columbia,Queens College, theUniversity of Virginia School of Law.^[5]

He published his first book,Discovering Modernism: T. S. Eliot and His Context, in 1987. His second book,The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America (2001), includes detailed biographical material onOliver Wendell Holmes Jr.,William James,Charles Sanders Peirce, andJohn Dewey, and documents their roles in the development of the philosophy ofpragmatism. It received the 2002Pulitzer Prize for History, the 2002Francis Parkman Prize, and The Heartland Prize for Non-Fiction. In 2002 Menand publishedAmerican Studies, a collection of essays on prominent figures in American culture.

He is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of English at Harvard. In 2018 he was appointed for a 5-year term to the Lee Simpkins Family professorship of Arts and Sciences.^[6] His principal field of academic interest is 19th and 20th century American cultural history. He teaches literary theory and postwar cultural history at both the graduate and undergraduate level. At Harvard he helped co-found a freshman course with content in literature and philosophy, Humanities 10: An Introductory Humanities Colloquium. He also served as co-chair on the Task Force on General Education at Harvard working on a new general education curriculum.^[5]

In consultation with theNational Endowment for the Humanities, President Barack Obama awarded him theNational Humanities Medal in 2015.^[7]

In 2021, Menand's bookThe Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War was published. Mark Grief's review inThe Atlantic described the book as a "monumental new study of cold war culture," covering "art, literature, music, and thought from 1945 to 1965."^[8]

This list isincomplete; you can help byadding missing items.(December 2014)

• Menand, Louis (1987).Discovering Modernism: T. S. Eliot and His Context. Oxford:Oxford University Press.ISBN 0195040694.
• —, ed. (1996).The Future of Academic Freedom. Chicago:University of Chicago Press.ISBN 0226520048.
• —, ed. (1997).Pragmatism: A Reader. New York:Vintage Books.ISBN 0679775447.
• — (2001).The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America. New York:Farrar, Straus and Giroux.ISBN 0374199639.
• — (2002).American Studies. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.ISBN 0374104344.
• — (2010).The Marketplace of Ideas: Reform and Resistance in the American University. New York:W. W. Norton & Company.ISBN 9780393062755.
• — (2021).The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.ISBN 9780374722913.^[a][b]

• Menand, Louis (November 14, 2011)."Getting real". The Critics. A Critic at Large.The New Yorker.87 (36):76–83. Retrieved2014-04-24. ReviewsGaddis, John Lewis.George F. Kennan : an American life. Penguin.
• — (July 2, 2012)."Silence, exile, punning : James Joyce's chance encounters". The Critics. A Critic at Large.The New Yorker.88 (19):70–75.
• — (March 4, 2013)."How the Deal went down : saving democracy in the Depression". The Critics. Books.The New Yorker.89 (3):69–74. Retrieved2015-05-11. ReviewsKatznelson, Ira.Fear itself : the New Deal and the origins of our time. Liveright.
• — (July 8–15, 2013)."The color of law : voting rights and the Southern way of life". The Critics. A Critic at Large.The New Yorker.89 (20):80–89.
• — (September 30, 2013)."Nukes of hazard". The Critics. Books.The New Yorker.89 (30):76–80. Retrieved2015-03-03. ReviewsSchlosser, Eric (2013).Command and Control. Penguin.ISBN 9781594202278.
• — (October 21, 2013)."The Norman invasion : the crazy career of Norman Mailer". The Critics. A Critic at Large.The New Yorker.89 (33):86–95.
• — (March 24, 2014)."The de Man case : does a critic's past explain his criticism?". The Critics. A Critic at Large.The New Yorker.90 (5):87–93. Retrieved2015-02-26.
• — (October 20, 2014)."Crooner in rights spat : are copyright laws too strict?". The Critics. A Critic at Large.The New Yorker.90 (32):84–89. Retrieved2014-12-23.
• — (March 23, 2015)."A friend of the Devil : inside a famous Cold War deception". The Critics. A Critic at Large.The New Yorker.91 (5):84–90.^[c]
• — (June 20, 2016)."What it is like to like : art and taste in the age of the Internet". The Critics. Books.The New Yorker.92 (18):73–76.
• — (October 10, 2016)."He's back : Karl Marx, yesterday and today". The Critics. A Critic at Large.The New Yorker.92 (32):90–97.^[d]
• — (May 1, 2017)."Op de stez : Norman Podhoretz's classic success story". The Critics. Books.The New Yorker.93 (11):63–69.^[e]
• — (February 26, 2018). "Made in Vietnam :Edward Lansdale and the war over the war". The Critics. Books.The New Yorker.96 (15):63–69. ReviewsMax Boot,The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam, Liveright / W.W. Norton & Co., 2018).
• — (September 30, 2019)."Merit badges : is higher education an engine of social injustice?". The Critics. Books.The New Yorker:75–80.^[f]
• — (June 1, 2020)."The Big Heinie : how Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig brought stardom to America's pastime". The Critics. Books.The New Yorker.96 (15):54–59.^[g]
• — (March 22, 2021)."Change your life : the lessons of the New Left". American Chronicles.The New Yorker.97 (5):46–53.^[h]
• — (August 22, 2022)."Drawing lines : our undemocratic democracy". The Critics. A Critic at Large.The New Yorker.98 (25):65–68.^[i]
• — (September 19, 2022)."Disgraced: What Happened to Rudy Giuliani?". American Chronicles.The New Yorker.98 (30):71–75.^[j]
• — (February 6, 2023)."Making the news : the press, the state, and the state of the press". The Critics. A Critic at Large.The New Yorker.98 (48):59–65.^[k]
• — (November 20, 2023). "The war on Chaplin".The New Yorker.99 (38):60–64.^[l]
• — (July 22, 2024)."What Happened to the Yuppie?". The Critics. Books.The New Yorker.100:58–62.^[m]

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Bibliography notes

• Louis Menand official website : recent articles, biography, books
• Harvard University Department of Englishfaculty listing for Menand
• Appearances onC-SPAN
• Menand's humorous exegesis ofThe Cat in the Hat onNPR'sAll Things Considered (link toWindows Media andRealMedia audio)
• Louis Menand on writing – (in theNew Yorker)
• "Cat People: What Dr. Seuss really taught us" -(in theNew Yorker)
• This Week in Media Rogues Article from The New York Observer about Louis Menand's review of "Wild Bill Donovan" in The New Yorker
• Letters to a Young Writer, Louis Menand to a letter,Narrative Magazine, (Fall 2010).
• Sun, Kevin,"Who is Louis Menand?",Harvard Crimson, October 20, 2011.

• Louis Menand on Reforming U.S. Universities from NPR's All Things Considered (Air Date: 1/18/10)
• Menand interview onThe Metaphysical Club onAll Things Considered (link to WM and RM audio)
• "New New York Intellectual: An Interview with Louis Menand" at theWayback Machine (archived March 9, 2005) in theMinnesota Review, (June 1, 2001).
• Roberts, Russ (May 31, 2010)."Menand on Psychiatry".EconTalk.Library of Economics and Liberty.

• 1952 births
• Living people
• Pulitzer Prize for History winners
• Harvard University faculty
• Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
• Harvard Law School alumni
• Princeton University faculty
• Historians of the United States
• The New Yorker staff writers
• Pomona College alumni
• CUNY Graduate Center faculty
• National Humanities Medal recipients
• Historians from California
• Queens College, City University of New York faculty

• Articles using NRISref without a reference number
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles with hCards
• Incomplete lists from December 2014
• People appearing on C-SPAN
• Webarchive template wayback links