This book addresses the fate of intellectuals in modern culture and politics. Russell Jacoby’s seminal The Last Intellectuals: American Culture in the Age of Academe (1987, 2000) introduced the term “public intellectual” and gave rise to heated controversy. Here Jacoby assesses contemporary public intellectuals, their profound failings and limited achievements. The book includes biting appraisals of well-known intellectuals, such as Noam Chomsky, Hannah Arendt, and Bernard-Henri Lévy, as well as interventions on violence, utopia and multiculturalism.
Author(s): Russell Jacoby
Series: Political Philosophy and Public Purpose
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 193
City: Cham
Preface
Contents
The Mission of Intellectuals
After The Last Intellectuals
Irresponsible Intellectuals?
Academic Conceits
The Myth of Multiculturalism
Post-Colonialism and the Marginality Industry
Publishing On Diversity
Campus Reports
The Cult of Complications
Professional Amnesia
The Fate of Freud
Notes
Assessments
Isaiah Berlin: With the Current
Bernard-Henri Lévy: Leftist Fabulist
Sartre and Camus: French Public Intellectuals
Hannah Arendt: Philosopher or New York Intellectual?
Jonathan Franzen: The Last Viennese Intellectual?
Notes
Appreciations
Christopher Hitchens
Randolph Bourne
Christopher Lasch
Paul Piccone
Daniel Bell
C. Wright Mills
Strictures
A Sociologist on Utopia
An English Professor on Liberal Intellectuals
A Literary Critic on Academic Careers
Myths About Utopia and Violence
Utopia and the Myth of Violence
Violence and the Myth of the Other
Notes
Enlightenment in the Age of Hype
A Falling Rate of Intelligence?
Notes
Index
