Author(s): Steve Fuller

Cultural Studies

Chomsky, Dawkins, Germaine Greer, Martin Amis...with their regular TV appearances, newspaper columns and soundbites in times of crisis, intellectuals are indispensable characters in the drama of modern life. But what makes them tick? Modelled on Machiavelli's notorious tract on statecraft, The Prince, Steve Fuller's book dissects what it means to be an intellectual. What distinguishes them from philosophers, scientists, politicians or entrepreneurs? Why are they happy to be insulted as long as they are not ignored? And who is the intellectual's favourite superhero? As well as a history of the intellectual from Ancient Greece to post-9/11, Steve Fuller introduces exemplars from the past - Voltaire, Sartre, Norman Mailer or Bertrand Russell - alongside many living examples in this essential how-to of the intellectual life.