by Dr Cassandra Atherton

This book investigates the role of the public intellectual in America.  In a series of critical essays and case studies, Wise Guys focuses, first, on the history of the public intellectual and then on questions of responsibility and a public intellectual’s place in contemporary society.  This book enters the debate led by Russell Jacoby and Richard Posner concerning the death of the public intellectual and posits the re-birth of the public intellectual in the New Media.  This book uses Atherton’s interviews with public intellectuals to inform her discussions.  Cassandra has a Harvard Visiting Scholar’s Position to work on this book.