Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone?

'This vitally important book . . . packs a remarkable amount (politics, science, culture, education, post-modernism) into its 150-odd pages and, true to its Enlightenment loyalties, couches an explosive argument in admirably temperate terms.' Terry Eagleton, New Statesman 'The strength of this book lies in Furedi's ability to make new connections, and to use one social phenomenon to cast light on another.' Roger Scruton, The Times The intellectual is an endangered species. In place of such people as Bertrand Russell, Raymond Williams or Hannah Arendt - people with genuine learning, breadth of vision and a concern for public issues - we now have only facile pundits, think tank apologists and spin doctors. In the age of the knowledge economy, we have somehow managed to combine the widest ever participation in higher education with the most dumbed-down of cultures. In this urgent and passionate book, Frank Furedi explains the essential contribution of intellectuals both to culture and to democracy - and why we need to recreate a public sphere in which intellectuals and the general public can talk to each other again.