The American Intellectual Elite

While most works on intellectuals first establish who should be included under the title intellectual, and debate their characteristics, in The American Intellectual Elite Kadushin instead sets forth a sociological history of leading American intellectuals of the late 1960s. The book’s concern, however, is primarily with time and place. While it is very much about social circles and the networked small world of intellectuals defined by the institutions such as the journals and magazines around which they gathered, its uniqueness is the recognition that fact must come before theory. Thus, the collective attitude of leading intellectuals are presented in a straightforward and dispassionate manner on topics as diverse as the Vietnam War, race relations, foreign and domestic policy, and the place of intellectuals in the resolution of such issues.

Charles Kadushin is professor emeritus of sociology at the Graduate Center of CUNY and Distinguished Scholar at Brandeis University