Helen Small is Professor of English at Oxford University and Jonathan and Julia Aisbitt Fellow of English at Pembroke College, Oxford. She is the author of The Long Life (OUP, 2007) (awarded the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism 2007) and the editor of The Public Intellectual (2002).

I can especially commend The Value of the Humanities to an Irish audience ... [it will] serve both as an inspiration and as a template for authors wishing to take up the challenge of defending research in a broad spread of disciplines from the short-sighted but ultimately ruinous plans of todays utilitarians.

• Introduction ; 1. Distinction from other Disciplines ; 2. Use and Usefulness ; 3. Socrates Dissatisfied: The Argument for a Contribution to Happiness ; 4. 'Democracy Needs Us': The Gadfly Argument for the Humanities ; 5. For Its Own Sake ; Conclusion: On Public Value ; Bibliography

Helen Small is Professor of English at Oxford University and Jonathan and Julia Aisbitt Fellow of English at Pembroke College, Oxford. She is the author of The Long Life (OUP, 2007) (awarded the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism 2007) and the editor of The Public Intellectual (2002).

I can especially commend The Value of the Humanities to an Irish audience ... [it will] serve both as an inspiration and as a template for authors wishing to take up the challenge of defending research in a broad spread of disciplines from the short-sighted but ultimately ruinous plans of todays utilitarians.

• Introduction ; 1. Distinction from other Disciplines ; 2. Use and Usefulness ; 3. Socrates Dissatisfied: The Argument for a Contribution to Happiness ; 4. 'Democracy Needs Us': The Gadfly Argument for the Humanities ; 5. For Its Own Sake ; Conclusion: On Public Value ; Bibliography

Helen Small is Professor of English at Oxford University and Jonathan and Julia Aisbitt Fellow of English at Pembroke College, Oxford. She is the author of The Long Life (OUP, 2007) (awarded the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism 2007) and the editor of The Public Intellectual (2002).

I can especially commend The Value of the Humanities to an Irish audience ... [it will] serve both as an inspiration and as a template for authors wishing to take up the challenge of defending research in a broad spread of disciplines from the short-sighted but ultimately ruinous plans of todays utilitarians.

• Introduction ; 1. Distinction from other Disciplines ; 2. Use and Usefulness ; 3. Socrates Dissatisfied: The Argument for a Contribution to Happiness ; 4. 'Democracy Needs Us': The Gadfly Argument for the Humanities ; 5. For Its Own Sake ; Conclusion: On Public Value ; Bibliography