Thomas Bender

"A finely wrought picture of academic life before disciplinary professionalization." -- History of Education Quarterly

Essays on the Social History of Academic Intellectuals in the United States

Intellect and Public Life

Steven Ovadia

I was interested in this book because it explores the disconnect between the academy and public life. It's written by a social historian, who's more historian than sociologist, though. Bender is detailed, but ultimately he doesn't really connect the history to the phenomenon.
Also, the book is a collection of previously published essays, so it's not always as cohesive as it could be, although it is interesting to see Bender's ideas evolve over the course of the book. But ultimately, the essays just aren't a perfect fit for his hypothesis. They dance around his questions, but they don't quite answer them.

Intellect and Public Life Essays on the Social History of Academic Intellectuals in the United States

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