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CREDENTIALS_THE_LAST_INTELLECTUALS

                                             November 6, 2015
                                             
                                             CREDENTIALS
                                                                                       


                                                      LAST_INTELLECTUALS

There's a book by Russell Jacoby called "The Last
Intellectuals" (1987) that has many flaws but was
nevertheless very popular-- at least among
intellectuals. "The Last Intellectuals" argues
that the unaffiliated, generalist intellectual
that once acted as a "transmission belt of              THERE_IS_A_WAR
culture" has become an endangered species, as
intellectuals moved en mass into academia and lost
the will and/or ability to write for the general
public.

The academic world seems to have taken this book as
a challenge for academics to do more publicly
accessible work, even if it's just blogging (this       ACADEMIC_LIGHTS
seems to be the general attitude at the
crookedtimber site, for example), though strictly
speaking Jacoby was championing a completely
unaffiliated and independent intellectuals ala the
aforementioned Jane Jacobs, or for example, (to
mention a crookedtimber favorite) George Scialabba.

                                                  SCIALABBA


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