DAVID DRAKE is Principal Lecturer in French at Middlesex University. He is the Secretary of the UK Society for Sartrean Studies and his articles and book reviews on French intellectuals (especially Sartre) and French politics and society have appeared in a number of publications including the Times Literary Supplement, the Times Higher Educational Supplement, the Financial Times, Sartre Studies International, Contemporary French Civilization, Journal of European Studies and Modern and Contemporary France.

'Drake has an unusual gift of being able to step back and look across the Channel with equanimity, without even a touch of superciliousness, and present to the reader a true cacophony of highly literate and highly combative voices in such a way that a foreigner can hear them, can grasp the motivations behind and the rationales for more than a half-century of French intellectuals' descending from the ivory tower into the harsh, often confused world of socio-political actuality.' - David L. Schalk, Vassar College, for H-France

• Acknowledgements Introduction Liberation, Épuration, Existentialism and Marxism The Onset of the Cold War From Kravchenko to Hungary via Korea Colonialism and Anticolonialism May, Mao and the End of the 'Classic Intellectual'? From 'The Silence of the Intellectuals' to the End of the Millennium Conclusion Index

DAVID DRAKE is Principal Lecturer in French at Middlesex University. He is the Secretary of the UK Society for Sartrean Studies and his articles and book reviews on French intellectuals (especially Sartre) and French politics and society have appeared in a number of publications including the Times Literary Supplement, the Times Higher Educational Supplement, the Financial Times, Sartre Studies International, Contemporary French Civilization, Journal of European Studies and Modern and Contemporary France.

'Drake has an unusual gift of being able to step back and look across the Channel with equanimity, without even a touch of superciliousness, and present to the reader a true cacophony of highly literate and highly combative voices in such a way that a foreigner can hear them, can grasp the motivations behind and the rationales for more than a half-century of French intellectuals' descending from the ivory tower into the harsh, often confused world of socio-political actuality.' - David L. Schalk, Vassar College, for H-France

• Acknowledgements Introduction Liberation, Épuration, Existentialism and Marxism The Onset of the Cold War From Kravchenko to Hungary via Korea Colonialism and Anticolonialism May, Mao and the End of the 'Classic Intellectual'? From 'The Silence of the Intellectuals' to the End of the Millennium Conclusion Index

DAVID DRAKE is Principal Lecturer in French at Middlesex University. He is the Secretary of the UK Society for Sartrean Studies and his articles and book reviews on French intellectuals (especially Sartre) and French politics and society have appeared in a number of publications including the Times Literary Supplement, the Times Higher Educational Supplement, the Financial Times, Sartre Studies International, Contemporary French Civilization, Journal of European Studies and Modern and Contemporary France.

'Drake has an unusual gift of being able to step back and look across the Channel with equanimity, without even a touch of superciliousness, and present to the reader a true cacophony of highly literate and highly combative voices in such a way that a foreigner can hear them, can grasp the motivations behind and the rationales for more than a half-century of French intellectuals' descending from the ivory tower into the harsh, often confused world of socio-political actuality.' - David L. Schalk, Vassar College, for H-France

• Acknowledgements Introduction Liberation, Épuration, Existentialism and Marxism The Onset of the Cold War From Kravchenko to Hungary via Korea Colonialism and Anticolonialism May, Mao and the End of the 'Classic Intellectual'? From 'The Silence of the Intellectuals' to the End of the Millennium Conclusion Index