The ever changing role of an intellectual in this new age of political uncertainty is innovatively focused on within this exciting collection of essays. Its provocative studies and multifaceted responses promote a vigorous debate of individual case studies and will be of particular interest for sociologists, political theorists and historians of ideas.

Introduction; One: Provocations; 1: Public Intellectuals and Civil Society; 2: Can Women Be Intellectuals?; 3: Terrorism and the Betrayal of the Intellectuals; Two: Complications; 4: European Civil Society and the European Intellectual: What Is, and How Does One Become, a European Intellectual?; 5: What Influence? Public Intellectuals, the State and Civil Society; 6: Public Intellectuals, East and West: Jan Pato?ka and Václav Havel in Contention with Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Slavoj Žižek; 7: Public Intellectuals and Totalitarianism: A Century's Debate; Three: Case Studies; 8: Tocqueville as a Public Intellectual 1; 9: Tocqueville's Dark Shadow: Gustave de Beaumont as Public Sociologist and Intellectual Avant la Lettre; 10: French Sociologists and the Public Space of the Press: Thoughts Based on a Case Study (Le Monde, 1995-2002); 11: You Only See What You Reckon You Know: Max and Marianne Weber in the United States of America at the Turn of the Twentieth Century; 12: Towards a Sociology of Intellectual Styles of Thought: Differences and Similarities in the Thought of Theodor W. Adorno and Jürgen Habermas; 13: Women as Public Intellectuals: Kerstin Hesselgren and Alva Myrdal; 14: How Hayek Managed to Beat Lazarsfeld: The Different Perception of Two Sub-fields of Social Science 1; Three: Conclusion

'This exciting and provocative collection takes up the contemporary challenges facing intellectuals from an historical and biographical perspective. A stimulating book sure to ignite controversy about the fraught relation of intellectuals to their publics.' Michael Burawoy, University of California, USA 'Have 'intellectuals' disappeared, replaced by 'experts' in an age dominated by the mass media? Does the idea of the 'public' still make sense in such an age? This book provides a magisterial survey of these and other key questions concerning the practical impact of intellectual reflection.' Anthony Giddens, Former Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK 'Public intellectuals play a crucial role today, both in nearly every country of the world and at a global level. Contributors to this book bring social science research to bear on national differences and historical changes in the relationship of intellectuals to different publics and issues. They show how changes in media, democratic institutions, and academic fields have all influenced the ways in which intellectuals inform public debates. This is timely and important.' Craig Calhoun, President of the Social Science Research Council and New York University, USA. '...the contributors offer a sobering reminder that some of those listening most intently to academics' views have been the people with guns, grudges, gulags and an extremely dim view of intellectual freedom...there may be no more loin-girding way to start the year' The Times Higher Education '...there are many interesting observations and reflections in this collection, which can contribute to an understanding of the pressing question of the role of public intellectuals in history and in contemporary public life.' American Journal of Sociology