Absent Minds: Intellectuals in Britain

Collini, Stefan

ISBN 10: 0199291055 / ISBN 13: 9780199291052

Published by Oxford University Press, 2006

About this Item

viii, 526 pages ; 24 cm. Contents: The History of a word A matter of definition Anglo-Saxon attitudes Of light and leading Highbrows and other aliens The long 1950s I : happy families The long 1950s II : brave causes New left, new right, old story In their national habitat Greener grass : letters from America The peculiarities of the French The translation of the clerks Clerisy or undesirables : T.S. Eliot Professorial cackling : R.G. Collingwood Other people : George Orwell Nothing to say : A.J.P. Taylor No true answers : A.J. Ayer Outsider studies : the glamour of dissent Media studies : a discourse of general ideas Long views I : specialization and its discontents Long views II : From authority to celebrity?

Seller Inventory # 11cb406

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Absent Minds: Intellectuals in Britain
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0199291055
• ISBN 13: 9780199291052
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Philosophy

About this title

Synopsis

A richly textured work of history and a powerful contribution to contemporary cultural debate, Absent Minds provides the first full-length account of "he question of intellectuals" n 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 cliché 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.

About the Author

Stefan Collini is Professor of Intellectual History and English Literature at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Clare Hall. A frequent contributor to The Times Literary Supplement, The London Review of Books, and other periodicals both in Britain and the USA, his previous books include Public Moralists (1991), Matthew Arnold: a Critical Portrait (1994), and English Pasts (1999). He is a Fellow of both the British Academy and the Royal Historical Society.