June 29, 2001

Public Intellectuals of Today and Yesterday

To the Editor:

Alan Wolfe describes a public intellectual as someone who exports academic ideas into the larger public realm ("The Calling of the Public Intellectual," The Review, May 25). While I admire Wolfe's work and his ability to give life to this definition, I'd like to set another alongside it.

I recommend that we also think of a public intellectual as someone who brings the concerns of the public into academic debates, thereby granting them a legitimacy that they

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