This book examines the role and place of the intellectual in twentieth-century French society. The essays are for the most part written by eminent French scholars and make available to the English-speaking reader a growing body of research which explores the ethical and historical issues raised by the prominence of the intellectual in politics since the Dreyfus Affair. The volume concludes with an examination of the contrasting and complementary roles of the French and British intellectual.

Preface - Acknowledgements - Notes on Contributors - Notes on Translation - Introduction: Mandarins and Samurais: The Intellectual in Modern France; J.Jennings - Mirror, Mirror on the Wall who is the true Intellectual? Self-images of the Intellectual in France; S.Sand - Intellectuals as Actors: Image and Reality; C.Prochasson - The Concept of an Intellectual Generation; J-F.Sirinelli - Academics or Intellectuals? The Professors of the University of Paris and Political Debate in France from the Dreyfus Affair to the Algerian War; C.Charle - Intellectuals, Pacifism and Communism: the Mandarins and the Struggle for Peace (1914-1953); Y.Santamaria - French Intellectuals and a German Europe: An Aspect of Collaboration; D.Lindenberg - Anti-Intellectualism in French Political Culture; P.Balmand - The Intellectual, the Historian and the Journalist; J.Julliard - About Intellectuals; P.Nora - Intellectuals in Britain and France in the Twentieth Century: Confusions, Contrasts: and Convergence?; S.Collini - Index