The Company Of Critics: Social Criticism And Political Commitment In The Twentieth Century

by Michael Walzer

The Company of Critics provides a fascinating survey of the terrain of social criticism in the last century. Organizing the book as a series of eleven intellectual biographies, Michael Walzer tells not just the dramatic story of the cultural and political radical but also the more personal story of the meaning of criticism to the critic. By looking at the life and work of Julien Benda, Randolph Bourne, Martin Buber, Antonio Gramsci, Ignazio Silone, George Orwell, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, Herbert Marcuse, Michel Foucault, and Breyten Breytenbach, Walzer explains the role of the public intellectual in the context of what he identifies as "the triumphs and catastrophes of our time: the two world wars, the struggles of the working class, national liberation, feminism, totalitarian politics."The new edition, featuring a new preface, contains Walzer's thoughts on his own role as a public intellectual and, most important, the challenges that lie ahead for the engaged social critic. With its unique emphasis on life as a proving ground for thought, The Company of Critics is a necessary addition to the literature of social and political engagement both within and outside of the academy.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, History, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Michael Walzer is a Jewish American political philosopher and public intellectual. A professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, he is editor of the political-intellectual quarterly Dissent. He has written books and essays on a wide range of topics, including just and unjust wars, nationalism, ethnicity, economic justice, social criticism, radicalism, tolerance, and political obligation and is a contributing editor to The New Republic. To date, he has written 27 books and published over 300 articles, essays, and book reviews in Dissent, The New Republic, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and many scholarly journals

Reviews

[Giedre Kazlauskaite]

Kairysis kritikuoja kairiuosius, darydamas išvadą, kad visi jie neatitinka kairuolio stereotipo. Skaitydama mąsčiau, kaip nuo literatūros ar meno pereinama prie visuomenės kritikos, ir ar atsimenu tokių (moterų!) pavyzdžių gimtajame kaimelyje. Vis vien pirmiausia iškyla tos pavardės, kurių raiška neapsiriboja fb / goodreads / insta (šlykštus prigimtinis elitizmas, bet atrodo, kad atsikovojant viešąją erdvę tai svarbu).

[Ericka · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, I should be writing my dissertation, but instead Im reading Walzer on a soap box. But its a soap box talk I could have given, and so its appreciated. This book is what I always hope television will be like. It will be not too intellectually draining, but mildly stimulating and somewhat inspiring, just before I go to sleep. Thank you Michael Walzer for making me this series of sanctimonious bedtime stories about how social critics really can change the world.

[Harry Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

like with all academic texts, it was unnecessarily incomprehensible and filled with pointless jargon. beyond that it made me feel like a bastard and Breytenbach is cool so i give it 3 stars.

fanks