Table of Contents

Introduction: The Question of Intellectuals
Part One: The Terms of the Question
1: The History of a Word
2: A Matter of Definition
Part Two: Fonder Hearts
3: Anglo-Saxon Attitudes
4: Of Light and Leading
5: Highbrows and Other Aliens
6: The Long 1950s I: Happy Families
7: The Long 1950s II: Brave Causes
8: From New Left to Old Chestnut
Part Three: Comparative Perspectives
9: In their Natonal Habitat
10: Greener Grass: Letters from America
11: The Peculiarities of the French
12: The Translation of the Clerks
Part Four: Some Versions of Denial
13: Clerisy or Undesirables: T. S. Eliot
14: Professional Cackling: R. G. Collingwood
15: Other People: George Orwell
16: Nothing to Say: A. J. P. Taylor
17: No True Answers: A. J. Ayer
Part Five: Repeat Performances
18: Outsider Studies: The Glamour of Dissent
19: Media Studies: A Discourse of General Ideas
20: Long Views I: Specialization and its Discontents
21: Long Views II: From Authority to Celebrity?
Epilogue: No Elsewhere

About the Author

Stefan Collini is Professor of Intellectual History and English Literature at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Clare Hall. A frequent contributor to The Times Literary Supplement, The London Review of Books, and other periodicals both in Britain and the USA, his previous books include Public Moralists (1991), Matthew Arnold: a Critical Portrait (1994), and English Pasts (1999). He is a Fellow of both the
British Academy and the Royal Historical Society.

Reviews

This is a book in which playfulness and wit interlock with, rather than adorn or relieve, probing analysis and humane seriousness. Christopher Hilliard, The Historical Journal Absent Minds is an intriguing, sometimes illuminating, book written with elegance and elan. David Stack, The English Historical Review ..elegant and challenging Dominic Sandbrook, Telegraph ..[a]..witty and detailed study Bernard Richards, Oxford Magazine a long book of dazzling short chapters. Richly layered, provocative and very funny. Roy Foster, Times Literary Supplement. ...a splendidly challenging book. Bernard Bergonzi, The Tablet ..[includes] many striking items of information David Simpson, London Review of Books clever and entertaining revisionist history...Absent Minds brilliantly exemplifies the sort of human, intelligent and accessible critique he so eloquently advocates' Michael Saler, TLS ..[a]. .splendid new book... Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian ...[a] magisterial study...Collini is a skilled portraitist and provides us with some judicious, vividly detailed cameos of such figures as Collingwood, T S Eliot, Orwell, A J P Taylor and Freddie Ayer...this magnificently perceptive survey of the British intellectual caste, with a handful of French and American thinkers thrown in for good measure, will prove hard to outstrip as the definitive account of its subject...It is a stylish, finely analytical study... his literary style combines journalism with erudition, in the best manner of the tradition he investigates... it is a superb distillation of several decades of research and reflection...this magnificently perceptive survey of the British intellectual caste, with a handful of French and American thinkers thrown in for good measure, will prove hard to outstrip as the definitive account of its subject. Terry Eagleton, New Statesman Absent Minds is a tour de force by a scholar and critic at the height of his powers James Wilsdon, Financial Times ...fascinating...Absent Minds is a provocative and impressive read. Dominic Sandbrook, The Telegraph Stefan Collini promises a panoramic view of British intellectuals in the 20th century...with contemporary disquisitions on 'media studies' and celebrity. Collini is expert at the urbane insertion of a dagger: Should be provocative fun. Steven Poole, The Guardian 'Absent Minds is first rate...immensely authoritative' Winston Fletcher, THES a rich, subtle and complex book, which is a constant stimulus to thought...full of witty phrases Robert Skidelsky, Prospect Stefan Collini was arguably the person best placed to write a book as ambitious as this...The book is based on impressive research, and displays, once more, the sharp critical capacities Collini is known for. It cannot be sufficiently stressed that this book should be compulsory reading for anyone interested in the question of intellectuals and intellectual activity in any country, both historically and in the contemporary context. Historian the book is excellent, thoroughly researched, full of unexpectd discussions of half-forgotten names, movements, and periodicals, provoking further study. Jeremy Tambling, MLR