Description
Book SynopsisWith the demise of the classical republican notion of the public, Bender contends, there has emerged a more pluralistic notion of the public that-combined with the revival of interest in pragmatic theories of truth-may offer the possibility of a richer collaboration of democracy and intellect.
Trade ReviewThomas Bender is our foremost cartographer of the intellect, the Mercator of the American mind. New York History A finely wrought picture of academic life before disciplinary professionalization. -- Daniel T. Rogers History of Education Quarterly In this excellent collection... Bender's essays suggest an ingenious account, both intellectual and spatial, of the growth of professional society. -- Peter Scott Times Higher Education Supplement The topic is a fascinating one, which is studied here with stimulating brevity and perception. -- Rosemary Park Change Bender's positive, generous, civil voice injects a soothing dose of optimism into current academic debates, and his invocation of 'public culture' delivers a needed antidote to the spurious concept that shares the same initial consonants. -- Mary Ryan, American Quarterly [A] sparkling and insightful volume. Canadian Review of American Studies
Table of ContentsPreface
Acknowledgments
Part I: Nineteenth-Century Origins of Academic Culture
Chapter 1. The Cultures of Intellectual Life: The City and the Professions
Chapter 2. Science and the Culture of American Communities
Chapter 3. The Erosion of Public Culture: Cities, Discourses, and Professional Disciplines
Part II: Twentieth-Century Patterns
Chapter 4. E.R.A. Seligman and the Vocation of Social Science
Chapter 5. The Emergence of the New York Intellectuals: Modernism, Cosmopolitanism, and Nationalism
Chapter 6. The Historian and Public Life: Charles A. Beard and the City
Chapter 7. Lionel Trilling and American Culture
Part III: Conclusions and Reconsiderations
Chapter 8. Academic Knowledge and Political Democracy in the Age of the University
Epilogue
Notes
Index
