The American Intellectual Elite - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1412805139 ISBN 13: 9781412805131

Publisher: Routledge, 2006

Synopsis

There are almost as many works about intellectuals as there are intellectuals. Perhaps this is because intellectuals are masters of the word and their mastery is often used to write about themselves. Indeed, with the possible exceptions of sports figures and film actors, intellectuals may be the most overpublicized people in America. In this classic study, originally published in 1974, Charles Kadushin examines the attitudes of that class of people known as the American intellectual elite.

While most works on intellectuals first establish who should be included under the title "intellectual," and debate their characteristics, Kadushin instead sets forth a sociological history of leading American intellectuals of the late 1960s. The book's concern, however, is primarily with time and place. While The American Intellectual Elite is very much about social circles and the networked "small world" of intellectuals defined by the institutions such as the journals and magazines around which they gathered, the uniqueness of this volume is the recognition that fact must come before theory. Thus, the collective attitude of leading intellectuals of the sixties are presented in a straightforward and dispassionate manner on topics as diverse as the Vietnam War, race relations, foreign and domestic policy, and the place of intellectuals in the resolution of such issues.

Now in paperback with a new introduction by the author, The American Intellectual Elite is an influential work that will be valued by students of sociology, members of the intellectual elite, and professionals and students of contemporary American history.

About this title

About the Author

Charles Kadushin is professor emeritus of sociology at the graduate center of the City University of New York, distinguished scholar at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish studies, and visiting research professor of sociology, Brandeis University. He has been a consultant to the New York City Department of Health, the Department of Mental Hygiene Research Unit, the Community Health Board, the Institute for International Education, and the Market Research Corporation of America. Professor Kadushin has contributed to a number of professional and scholarly journals, among them the American Sociological Review, New Society, and the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Review

"What a boon to sociologists of knowledge, and, in fact, to anyone who cares about the role and future of intellectuals to have THE AMERICAN INTELLECTUAL ELITE back and print—and with a thoughtful new essay by the author that places the work in the context of thirty years of social and cultural change that have transpired since its publication. Professor Kadushin not only recognized that intellectuals populate an intellectual field that is, to a far greater extent than others, constituted and sustained by the networks of relationships among them—but he pioneered in the application of social network analysis to identify both players and links using concrete social data. In a conversation too frequently dominated by the empirically undisciplined claims of those with the greatest stakes in the debate, THE AMERICAN INTELLECTUAL ELITE stands out as a beacon of careful research and clear thinking. One hopes that social scientists and other interested in modern intellectual life will read it carefully, and even that republication may inspire replication."

—Professor Paul DiMaggio, Princeton University 

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1412805139
• ISBN 13: 9781412805131
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 395
• Editor: Sommer John, Kadushin Charles