Irving Babbitt

Irving Babbitt (August 2, 1865 – July 15, 1933) was an American academic and literary critic, noted for his founding role in a movement that became known as the New Humanism, a significant influence on literary discussion and conservative thought in the period 1910 to 1930. He was a cultural critic in the tradition of Matthew Arnold, and a consistent opponent of romanticism, as represented by the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Politically he can without serious distortion be called a follower of Plato and Edmund Burke. His humanism implied a broad knowledge of various religious traditions.

References

• Humanism and America: Essays on the Outlook of Modern Civilization (1930) edited by Norman Foerster
• The Humanism of Irving Babbitt (1931) F. E. McMahon
• Humanism and Naturalism: A Comparative Study of Ernest Seillière, Irving Babbitt and Paul Elmer More (1937) Folke Leander
• Irving Babbitt (1941) edited by F. Manchester and O. Shepard
• Irving Babbitt: An Intellectual Study (1984) Thomas R. Nevin
• Will, Imagination and Reason (Irving Babbitt and the Problem of Reality) (1986) Claes G. Ryn
• Irving Babbitt in Our Time (1986) edited by George A. Panichas and Claes Ryn
• Irving Babbitt (1987) Stephen C. Brennan and Stephen R. Yarbrough,
• Irving Babbitt, Literature, and the Democratic Culture (1994) Milton Hindus
• The Critical Legacy of Irving Babbitt: An Appreciation (1999) George A. Panichas