Pragmatism represents the most important school of American thought at the end of the 19th century and in the early decades of the 20th century. During this time, it not only shaped philosophy and social sciences in the USA but also attained the status of a "public philosophy" there. In Europe, however, the engagement with this way of thinking was initially limited by insurmountable barriers of misunderstanding. Pragmatism was often seen as the American version of life philosophy or as the inconsistent brother of logical positivism. While in philosophy these misunderstandings are gradually being overcome, leading to a renaissance of pragmatism due to the recognition of its unprecedented modernity, the societal theoretical consequences of pragmatism have so far been rarely explored.