Promotional Information

"Todd Gitlin has joined Irving Howe, Michael Walzer, Michael Harrington, and Christopher Lasch in the ranks of our nation's most brilliant, important, and perceptive social critics. The Intellectuals and the Flag will confirm that reputation. Gitlin is fearless: he challenges the status quo and his own side. He insists that the Left has a moral obligation to stop marginalizing itself and to change the country by appealing to our traditions of democracy, equality and community. We need critics who are patriots -- and patriots who are critics. Gitlin shows that patriotism need not be, and should not be, the last refuge of scoundrels." -- E. J. Dionne Jr., author of Why Americans Hate Politics and Stand Up Fight Back

Table of Contents

Introduction: From Great Refusal to Political Retreat I. Three Exemplary Intellectuals 1. David Riesman's Lonely Crowd 2. C. Wright Mills, Free Radical 3. Irving Howe's Partition II. Two Traps and Three Values 4. The Postmodernist Mood 5. The Antipolitical Populism of Cultural Studies 6. The Values of Media, Citizenship, and Higher Education III. The Intellectuals and the Flag Acknowledgments Index

About the Author

Sociologist, journalist, and public intellectual Todd Gitlin is professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University. He is the author of ten previous books, including The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage; The Whole World is Watching; and Letters to a Young Activist.

Reviews

"Gitlin's liberal patriotism is an affirmation of membership in our society and of participation in the American experiment." -- Elbert Ventura, Cleveland Plain Dealer "What else could Gitlin do but resemble the greats? He's a force." -- Tony Dokoupil, New York Press "If you are tired of a left politics assigned to the margins... buy this book. And then get to work." -- Stewart Nusbaumer, Intervention Magazine "A blunt, frank analysis of the current state of the left." -- Jim Agnew, Jagnew.com "His insights and perceptions strike me as succinct, on target, clear-eyed and revelatory." -- Sam Coale, Providence Journal "Gitlin is certainly a thoughtful, intelligent, and important critic... Recommended." -- Choice " The Intellectuals and the Flag proves that social criticism of a high caliber has not completely disappeared from American public life." -- Alan Wolfe, Commonweal "A particularly eloquent rendering of the inevitable and proper post-9/11 patriotism that affected the left no less than the right or center." -- Chronicle of Higher Education