This small book is the result of a symposium on the role of public intellectuals held by the Royal Irish Academy. Members of the Academy's Committee for Social Sciences gathered to discuss the practical value of public intellectuals in times of crisis; their individual essays are separated here by quotations from that conversation. Readers familiar with American academic language will find the tone of the book is open and down-to-earth. Though the context is specific to Ireland, all the writers have one eye on the international situation. Irish concerns will be surprisingly familiar to US readers: dumbing-down and work-training movements in higher education, the loss of public spaces for conversation, the rise of free-market fundamentalism, and the increasing fragmentation of professional knowledge fields into narrow, specialized, isolated disciplines. Public intellectuals are considered both as academics, and as other professionals (that most politicians are lawyers, for instance). The authors refer to specific situations where public intellectuals changed national politics and public life. Though they all have a vested interest in the idea that public intellectuals matter, they are willing both to argue thoughtfully for their values in practice, and to talk honestly about the idea that public intellectuals might not matter, or might matter only in certain times and situations. The book is designed to start conversations rather than offer definitive conclusions and both general and student readers will find it effective. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Read Less