An apologia for Arthur Lovejoy's long-range approach to the history of ideas

Arthur Lovejoy’s long-range approach to the history of ideas is little appreciated and largely abandoned. The list of Lovejoy’s supposed sins is long. Inter alia, his critics have charged that he treated ideas as timeless entities with essences that exist independent of individual thinkers, separate from specific texts, isolated from immediate contexts, and insulated from intellectual change. This article defends Lovejoy against such attacks and argues that his approach is still viable and valuable.