A richly textured work of history and a powerful contribution to
contemporary cultural debate, Absent Minds provides the first
full-length account of 'the question of intellectuals' in
twentieth-century Britain - have such figures ever existed, have they
always been more prominent or influential elsewhere, and are they on
the point of becoming extinct today? Recovering neglected or
misunderstood traditions of reflection and debate from the late
nineteenth century through to the present, Stefan Collini challenges
the familiar cliche that there are no 'real' intellectuals in Britain.
The book offers a persuasive analysis of the concept of 'the
intellectual' and an extensive comparative account of how this
question has been seen in the USA, France, and elsewhere in Europe.
There are detailed discussions of influential or revealing figures
such as Julien Benda, T. S. Eliot, George Orwell, and Edward Said, as
well as trenchant critiques of current assumptions about the impact of
specialization and celebrity. Throughout, attention is paid to the
multiple senses of the term 'intellectuals' and to the great diversity
of relevant genres and media through which they have communicated
their ideas, from pamphlets and periodical essays to public lectures
and radio talks. Elegantly written and rigorously argued, Absent Minds
is a major, long-awaited work by a leading intellectual historian and
cultural commentator, ranging across the conventional divides between
academic disciplines and combining insightful portraits of individuals
with sharp-edged cultural analysis.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780191537523
Publisert
2020
Utgiver
Vendor
OUP Oxford
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter