https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/a6006ec2cb94f7022428a7086c7cff2e.pdf f0356ea360eae541364e61b126dac912 PDF Text Text THE NEA HIGHER EDUCATION JOURIEAL 127 From Anxious Intellectuals to Ardent Activists Anxious Intellects: Academic Professionals, Public Intelle ctuals. and Enlightenment Values. By John Michael Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 2000. Reviewed by Chad M. Hanson of the contemporary int< llectual as here is irony in the opening a university-based techn icrat oper­ sentence of John Michael’s ating in a moral vacuum. lost withAnxious Intellects. He notes, out a political compass ir popular “The most surprising thesis this agenda. book advances is the one funda­ Throughout the boo l, Michael mental to its project: the thesis that we need another book on intellectu­ implores academics to enter the arena of popular politics. But in als.” light of the post-Reaga 1 political Perhaps it’s not surprising that climate, he also sugges ts leaving the author should be anxious about the cultural baggage of the left at his own book. The question of whether or not the world needs home. another book about intellectuals is For more than two iecades it legitimate. But despite his anxiety, has been difficult to stan 1 on a left­ wing platform without somehow John Michael knows the answer is being aligned with K irl Marx, yes. Anxiety looms whenever the Fidel Castro, or the ent re host of villains that brought us ihe former subject is intellect. Who would dare claim the title of “intellectual”? Soviet Union. After all, what does it mean to be Accordingly, whil( Michael stops short of specifying 1 course of an intellectual? The questions sur­ face often in Michael’s work. He action for the new class 3f intellecexplains, “Intellectuals generally— tuals he envisions, he rel es on a set and left intellectuals peuticularly— of universal guiding i rinciples, seem confused and at odds about those of the Enlightenm< int. Ostensibly transceiding the what they are supposed to profess, and why after all, anyone should politics of left and righ t, Michael want to listen.” suggests: “The fun iamental Michael suggests that intellec­ grounding of any intellec tual’s poli­ tuals have retreated, primarily to tics ... must always an 1 do come colleges and universities and the from certain strains witi in the varpublish-or-perish world of speaking ied and vexed traditii ns of the and writing in discipline-specific Enlightenment” jargon. He paints a familiar picture However, the Enlij htenment T �128 THOUGHT & ACTION values he refers to are not political­ ly neutral; they are the stock-intrade of the left. He is talking about “justice, equality, solidarity, compassion, rationality, and the rest.” His plea for a return to Enlightenment val­ ues is not opaque; his agenda is clearly progressive. He is asking authors and academics to step out into popular politics, with Enlight­ enment values under one arm and a commitment to social justice under the other. Michael suggests there are groups in the academy who are moving toward the politics he describes, He notes: “It is the poli­ tics toward which many academic professionals in cultural studies specifically, and in the humanities and social sciences more generally, aspire.” But while he consistently pro­ motes the idea of an activist form of scholarship, in the end, Michael himself comes up short. On one hand, the goal of this book is to inspire scholars from across the disciplines, to prompt people to engage in relevant public service. On the other hand, the work is written from the increasingly unique perspective of cultural stud­ ies, and in the prose style of acade­ mic literary criticism. The subjects of Michael’s work, the lens through which he views them, and the hand he writes in all reveal his own posi­ tion in the academy as an associate professor of English. Despite the book’s title, I was surprised to find few references to the Enlightenment. In the body of the book Michael visits the work of a number of contemporary thinkers: Theodor Adorno, Cornel West, Paulo Freire, and Stephen Hawking, among others. All are important scholars in theii own right, and Michael handles them with skill, but these are h irdly Enlightenment figures. The remarkable history i if the Enlightenment is that the i move­ ment shook the very foundati wms of science, culture, and economics. Enlightenment scholars ch{ nged the way men and women v: ewed nature, themselves, and the societies they hved in. Folks like West, Freire and Hawking may embody the sp rit of the Enlightenment in that they have been more successful than most academics when it con es to capturing the minds and imj gination of the American public. But Michael overestimates the r )le of academics in forging public p rception. He portrays college anc uni­ versity faculty as the great h >pe of the American left; but the p: esent truth is they’ve been deci ledly bested by those who write and speak from a conservative base: Dinesh D’Sousa, William Be inett. and even Rush Limbaugh. Conservatives have leame d the value of engaging the publie, and have developed a popular voic} that resonates with Americans- -even when the message does not i match the interests of readers or list mers. In order for the Enlightei ment project to continue, the move ment needs spokespeople that the tublic pays attention to. Academics looking to Ar. xious Intellects for a manual on h 5w to use the works of Locke or V( Itaire to transform themselves into )ublic philosophers will be left wa iting. The book is, for the most pa rt, an academic exercise itself. Each of the subjects are seen through a theoretical frami work drawn from the work of Mi chael �THE NEA HIGHER EDUCATION JOLW AL Berube, Stanley Fish, and others who work in the genre of literary criticism. The analysis is well exe­ cuted, but it is presented in a fash­ ion that is best appreciated by Eng­ lish department faculty. Therefore, in response to Michael’s original question, “Do we need another book about intellectu­ als?” the answer is yes. We need this book, but we also need anoth­ er—one that follows the form that Michael only suggests. We still need an unabated guide for knowledge workers, one that prescribes entry into the world of popular politics and public engagement, but one that draws on the strength and character of his­ toric Enlightenment figures, and one that is written for a general 129 audience. That’s a tall order bu these are tough times. Anti-intellectualism persists as a threat to ar y progres­ sive agenda. In order t( meet the challenge, faculty will h ive to put both academic pretense «nd acade­ mic prose aside. Only the i will they be welcomed to take par. in public discourse. ■ Chad M. Hanson teaches <ociology at Northcentral Tech in Wausat. Wisconsin, His research interests include tthe study of two-year colleges as sites for » cial change, and the role of higher educati >n in Ameri­ can culture, politics, and econ mics. 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Chad Hanson Journal Publications, CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01 WyCaC US. Casper College Archives and Special Collections. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 04.ii.e.2025.01_ChadHansonPapers_70 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Searchable PDF Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available <em>The NEA Higher Education Journal</em> is published by the National Education Association