Jeremy Jennings is Reader in Political Theory at the University of Birmingham.,
Anthony Kemp-Welch is the Dean of the School of Economic and Social Studies at the University of East Anglia.

Chapter 1 The century of the intellectual, Jeremy Jennings, Tony Kemp-Welch; Part 1 Insiders and outsiders; Chapter 2 The intellectual as social critic, Richard Bellamy; Chapter 3 Between autonomy and responsibility, Alan Scott; Chapter 4 Of treason, blindness and silence, Jeremy Jennings; Part 2 Priestly interventions; Chapter 5 Algeria and the dual image of the intellectual, Lahouari Addi; Chapter 6 Between the word and the land, Shlomo Sand; Chapter 7 A product of history, not a cause?, D. George Boyce; Part 3 Slavonic jesters; Chapter 8 Revolutionaries and dissidents, Edward Acton; Chapter 9 Politics and the Polish intellectuals, 1945-89, Tony Kemp-Welch; Chapter 10 Intellectuals and socialism, Neil Harding; Part 4 American agnostics; Chapter 11 Freedom, commitment and Marxism, Steven Biel; Chapter 12 The tragic predicament, George Cotkin; Chapter 13 Are intellectuals a dying species?, David L. Schalk; epilogue Epilogue; Chapter 14 'What truth? For whom and where?', Martin Hollis;

After an introduction to the major issues confronting intellectuals, this book explores the various aspects of the intellectual's role including:
* philosophers and academics who have tried to define the function of the intellectual
* how intellectuals have assumed the status of the conscience of the nation and the voice of the oppressed
* the interaction of intellectuals with Marxism
* the place of the intellectual in American society
Covering regions as diverse as Israel, Algeria, Britain, Ireland, central Europe and America, this collection considers the question of whether the intellectual can still lay claim to the language of truth. In answering, this study tells us much about the modern world in which we live.
Coverage includes the following thinkers: Gramsci, Weber, Yeats, Auden, Levy, Mailer, Walzer, Marx and many more.