"Describing the role of the university and the intellectual from a left progressive viewpoint, Michael maintains that the Enlightenment project is still an important part of what is best in the Western cultural tradition... Michael explains that although the grand narratives of the Enlightenment may be in disrepair, the crucial ideas of reason, justice, and equality still frame the political and cultural work of intellectuals today. He defends multiculturalism, relativism, and interdisciplinary studies as positive forces in the modern world for expanding democracy. This exciting account touches on the most difficult questions in American public discourse."--Library Journal, May 1, 2000 "Anxious Intellects is a state-of-the-art assessment of the function of intellectuals at the turn of the century. Michael's astute and generous commentary on recent developments in this long tradition is especially relevant, coming at a time when human intelligence is becoming the staple industrial unit of the new economy."--Andrew Ross, New York University [We should let him know that title has changed. He wrote "Eggheads and..."] "Seeking 'an embattled middle ground,' Michael offers sustained and always astute commentary on the mixed results of the intellectual's status in the United States today."--Chris Newfield, University of California, Santa Barbara "Anxious Intellects introduces fresh material and a generally new tone into the discussion of the quarrels now familiarly known as the culture wars. Readers will welcome its efforts to disabuse parties on both sides of some of their more comforting fantasies about intellectual labour and to move the debate about intellectuals and politics onto more fruitful terrain."--Ellen Rooney, Brown University
