After an introduction to the major issues confronting intellectuals, this book explores the various aspects of the intellectual's role including:
* philosophers and academics who have tried to define the function of the intellectual
* how intellectuals have assumed the status of the conscience of the nation and the voice of the oppressed
* the interaction of intellectuals with Marxism
* the place of the intellectual in American society
Covering regions as diverse as Israel, Algeria, Britain, Ireland, central Europe and America, this collection considers the question of whether the intellectual can still lay claim to the language of truth. In answering, this study tells us much about the modern world in which we live.
Coverage includes the following thinkers: Gramsci, Weber, Yeats, Auden, Levy, Mailer, Walzer, Marx and many more.

Intellectuals have played a vital part in shaping this century and, since their original intervention in the Dreyfus affair to the case of Salmon Rushdie, intellectuals have caused controversy.
Jeremy Jennings and Tony Kemp-Welch introduce a collection of essays from leading academics in the field of political theory. After an introduction on the major issues confronting intellectuals the book explores the various different aspects of the intellectual's role, including:
* philosophers and academics who have tried to define the function of the intellectual
* how intellectuals have assumed the status of the conscience of the nation and the voice of the oppressed
* the interaction of intellectuals with Marxism
* the place of the intellectual in American society
Covering countries as diverse as Israel, Algeria, Britain, Ireland, central Europe and America, this collection considers the question of whether the intellectual can still lay claim to the language of truth. In answering, this study tells us much about the modern world in which we live.