Civility and Subversion
The Intellectual in Democratic Society

This 1998 book look at the role of the intellectual in democracy, from Central European dissidents to Toni Morrison.

Jeffrey C. Goldfarb (Author)

9780521622202, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 November 1998

264 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.56 kg

"This is a fine book. It is also an honest book. It avoids easy rhetoric and facile posturing. It will, no doubt, annoy some of its readers. It contributes to an important debate, the significance of which extendds beyond the confines of the American academy." Jeremy Jennings, Social Forces

This 1998 book provides a sophisticated alternative to existing accounts of the role of the intellectual in modern democracy. Arguing that society suffers from a systemic deliberation deficit, Jeffrey Goldfarb explores the potential of the intellectual as democratic agent, at once civilizing political contestation and subverting complacent consensus. The sentimental Leftist view of the intellectual as guardian of democracy and the demonising Rightist view of the intellectual as obstructor of progress, are both shown to be flawed. Instead, intellectuals are portrayed as special kinds of 'strangers' who pay careful attention to their critical faculties, equipping them uniquely to address the most pressing issues of today. Professor Goldfarb deploys classical and contemporary social theory to analyse a diverse set of intellectuals in action, from Socrates in fifth-century Athens to Malcolm X and Toni Morrison in twentieth-century America, and, drawing on personal acquaintance, the political dissidents in Communist and post-Communist Central Europe.

1. Introduction
2. Who are the intellectuals?
3. The civil intellectual and the public
4. The subversive intellectual and the public
5. The civil society ideal
6. The intellectuals and the politics of culture after Communism
7. The university
8. Race and discursive disruption
9. Race and sustained deliberation
10. Why is there no feminism after Communism?
11. Civility and subversion in cynical times.

Subject Areas: Political structures: democracy [JPHV], Political science & theory [JPA], Sociology & anthropology [JH], Cultural studies [JFC]