Democracy's Children: Intellectuals and the Rise of Cultural Politics

McGowan, John

ISBN 10: 0801487668 / ISBN 13: 9780801487668

Editore: Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 2002

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Paperback in good condition. Several marks and scores on covers. Binding is intact, contents are clean and clear. AM.

Codice articolo 439399

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Democracy's Children: Intellectuals and the Rise of Cultural Politics
• Editore: Cornell University Press, Ithaca
• Data di pubblicazione: 2002
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0801487668
• ISBN 13: 9780801487668
• Rilegatura: Paperback
• Condizione: Good
• Tipo di libro: Used
• Cataloghi dei venditori:
  • Teaching & Education

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

How do American intellectuals try to achieve their political and social goals? By what means do they articulate their hopes for change? John McGowan seeks to identify the goals and strategies of contemporary humanistic intellectuals who strive to shape the politics and culture of their time. In a lively mix of personal reflection and shrewd analysis, McGowan visits the sites of intellectual activity (scholarly publications, professional conferences, the classroom, and the university) and considers the hazards of working within such institutional contexts to effect change outside the academy.

Democracy's Children considers the historical trajectory that produced current intellectual practices. McGowan links the growing prestige of "culture" since 1800 to the growth of democracy and the obsession with modernity and explores how intellectuals became both custodians and creators of culture. Caught between fears of culture's irrelevance and dreams of its omnipotence, intellectuals pursue a cultural politics that aims for wide-ranging social transformations.

For better or worse, McGowan says, the humanities are now tied to culture and to the university. The opportunities and frustrations attendant on this partnership resonate with the larger successes and failures of contemporary democratic societies. His purpose in this collection of essays is to illuminate the conditions under which intellectuals in a democracy work and at the same time to promote intellectual activities that further democratic ideals.

Informazioni sull?autore

John McGowan is John W. and Anna H. Hanes Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of Postmodernism and its Critics, also from Cornell University Press, and Representation and Revelation: Victorian Realism from Carlyle to Yeats.