Men of Ideas

They just don't write intellectual histories like this anymore. Coser's prose is lucid, his research deep and compelling. I have to admit I read this book in one great gulp. As I did, I felt random insights gained in other books into the rise of the modern intellectual begin to fall into place under the gentle pressure of Coser's narrative.For instance, the concomitant rise of the English coffeehouse and the rise of the intellectual in that newly formed public space. Habermas points to this innovation as the basis for his notion of the public sphere. Prior to the public coffeehouse Coser points out, intellectuals had very little opportunity to meet, to talk, to argue, to pursue their particular interests with others in a free and unpoliced space. Modern coffeehouse franchise trades on this legacy; of course, but only superficially. The original coffeehouses in London each had their own character, their own clientele, their own subject matter. And people talked, they held forth, they created public opinion. I don't hear much public opinion being expressed in today's expresso parlors. In fact, I suspect a real political discussion would be considered out of bounds. His discussion of the "Brain Trust" in the FDR adminsistration is compelling, too -- the point at which intellectuals were at last let into the center of American power. Taken in tandem with "Anti-Intellectualism in American Life" by Richard Hofstadter, Coser and Hofstader tell a fascinating story of the rise of the intellectual and the resistance they have encountered and continue to encounter. Check out the list provided by Plaegius shown on this page -- I've read three of them so far, and have been very pleased so far!