Whether intellectuals are counter-cultural escapists corrupting the young or secular prophets leading us to prosperity, they are a fixtures of modern political life. In The Public Intellectual: Between Philosophy and Politics , Arthur Melzer, Jerry Weinberger and M. Richard Zinman bring together a wide variety of noted scholars to discuss the characteristics, nature and role of public thinkers. By looking at scholarly life in the West, this work explores the relationship between thought and action, ideas and events, reason and history.