Jerry Weinberger

M. Richard Zinman

Arthur Melzer

With the end of the Cold War, the death of Communism, and the decline of Socialism, what are the primary issues, ideologies, and parties that now structure politics? Melzer, Zinman, and Weinberger have compiled essays from prominent experts to examine the politics of the past to help plot the political future. The first half of the volume addresses “Identity Politics” and “Big Government” and their respective places in the shaping of the United States political environment since the end of the Cold War. The second half of the volume focuses on the political climate in Western Europe, Russia, India, and China.

Politics at the Turn of the Century

Arthur M. Melzer

Symposium on Science, Reason, and Modern Democracy

Whether intellectuals are counter-cultural escapists corrupting the young or secular prophets leading us to prosperity, they are a fixture of modern political life. In The Public Intellectual: Between Philosophy and Politics, Arthur M. Melzer, Jerry Weinberger, and M. Richard Zinman bring together a wide variety of noted scholars to discuss the characteristics, nature, and role of public thinkers. By looking at scholarly life in the West, this work explores the relationship between thought and action, ideas and events, reason and history.

Between Philosophy and Politics

The Public Intellectual

The publication of Francis Fukuyama's article, "The End of History?" prompted a wave of public debates about democracy, progress, and the idea of history. In this book, twelve distinguished cultural commentators offer a brilliant array of responses to those debates. Fukuyama's controversial essay had considered whether Western-style democracy might be the endpoint of an inevitable historical development. For the present volume, the chapters—none of which has appeared elsewhere—include both a keynote chapter by Fukuyama and a series of spirited alternatives to his position. Additional essays examine the historical and philosophical origins of the idea of history that lies behind today's perspectives on progress and politics.

M. Richard Zinman

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