Cover of Intellectuals: From Marx and Tolstoy to Sartre and Chomsky

Intellectuals: From Marx and Tolstoy to Sartre and Chomsky

by Paul Johnson · 1988

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Paul Johnson examines whether intellectuals are morally fit to give advice to humanity.

Do the private practices of intellectuals match the standard of their public principles?

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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.

Subject
biographybiographyMore like thisLess of thisphilosophyphilosophyMore like thisLess of thispoliticspoliticsMore like thisLess of thishistoryhistoryMore like thisLess of thissociologysociologyMore like thisLess of this
Genre
historical fictionhistorical fictionMore like thisLess of this
Themes
politicspoliticsMore like thisLess of thishistoryhistoryMore like thisLess of thisAmerican historyAmerican historyMore like thisLess of thissocial issuessocial issuesMore like thisLess of this
Audience
adult
Length
long · 416 pages
Form
essaysessaysMore like thisLess of this

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