Intellectuals

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Format:	Paperback 400 pages

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Synopsis

Do the private practices of intellectuals match the standard of their public principles? How great is their respect for truth? What is their attitude to money? How do they treat their spouses and children - legitimate and illegitimate? How loyal are they to their friends? Rousseau, Shelley, Marx, Ibsen, Tolstoy, Hemingway, Bertrand Russell, Brecht, Sartre, Edmund Wilson, Victor Gollancz, Lillian Hellman, Cyril Connolly, Norman Mailer, Kenneth Tynan and many others are put under the spotlight. With wit and brilliance, Paul Johnson exposes these intellectuals, and questions whether ideas should ever be valued more than individuals.

Book details

Published
06/04/2000

Publisher
Weidenfeld & Nicolson History

ISBN
9781842120392

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UK Kirkus review

Intellectual is a puzzlingly double-edged word. As a term of praise, an intellectual is someone who wears beautiful, black, cashmere pullovers and mulls over the great questions in characterful left-bank cafes. As a word of abuse, it suggests a self-indulgent, dishonest, hypocritical time-waster who ponders abstract questions while the world slides into chaos. In Intellectuals, Paul Johson is clear which meaning he prefers: 'Beware intellectuals. Not merely should they be kept away from the levers of power, they should also be objects of particular suspicion when they seek to offer collective advice. Beware committees, conferences and leagues of intellectuals. Distrust public statements issued from their serried ranks.' (Kirkus UK)