A new collection of essays from one of the most courageous and honest thinkers writing today ". . . proof that the spirit of the free-ranging public intellectual is still very much alive." - Newsday "Alan Wolfe is one of liberalism's last and most loyal sons. His mind is naturally decent and diversified; large enough and fair enough to contain both conviction and doubt. His profound respect for real people does not interfere with his profound respect for real thought. The criticism that he practices is, I fear, a dying art, but it is also one of the glories of American democracy." -Leon Wieseltier, New Republic "Alan Wolfe is one of America's indispensable essayists. On a broad range of topics-race, religion, politics, the marketplace, the university, and more-he combines a scholar's erudition with a historian's feel for the past and a journalist's keen attunement to the shifting patterns of the current scene. Above all he is a true writer, graceful but fearless, who ponders the deep questions so often ignored in the clamor of our ongoing civic conversation. Anyone who wonders what the term 'public intellectual' really means will find the answer-in fact many answers-in this scintillating collection." -Sam Tanenhaus, Vanity Fair