Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone? Confronting 21st Century Philistinism

The intellectual is an endangered species. In place of such figures 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.
Introduction: A personal journey through the land of the philistinesChapter 1: Devaluing the IntellectChapter 2: Trivial PursuitsChapter 3: Dumbing DownChapter 4: Social EngineeringChapter 5: The Culture of FlatteryChapter 6: Treating People as Children