Arthur M. Melzer is professor of political science at Michigan State University. He is the author of The Natural Goodness of Man: On the System of Rousseau's Thought (1990). He is also co-director of the Symposium on Science, Reason, and Modern Democracy and an editor of its first five volumes of essays, the most recent of which is Politics at the Turn of the Century (2001). Jerry Weinberger is professor of political science at Michigan State University. His books include Science, Faith, and Politics: Francis Bacon and the Utopian Roots of the Modern Age (1985) and new editions of Bacon's History of the Reign of King Henry the Seventh (1996) and The Advancement of Learning (2001). He is the director of the LeFrak Forum, co-director of the Symposium on Science, Reason, and Modern Democracy, and an editor of the Symposium's first five volumes of essays. M. Richard Zinman is University Distinguished Professor of Political Theory in James Madison College at Michigan State University. He is executive director of the Symposium on Science, Reason, and Modern Democracy and an editor of its first five volumes of essays.

The editors have brought together a diverse and superb group of contributors.

• Chapter 1 IntroductionPart 2 THEORYPart 3 The Rise of the Public IntellectualChapter 4 What is an Intellectual?Chapter 5 A Platonic Perspective on the Idea of the Public IntellectualChapter 6 The Idea of the Public Intellectual in the Age of the EnlightenmentChapter 7 Rousseau's Critique of the Public Intellectual in the Age of the EnlightenmentChapter 8 The Founding Fathers and the Creation of Public OpinionPart 9 The Public Intellectual in the Twentieth CenturyChapter 10 The Changing Role of the Public Intellectual in American HistoryChapter 11 The Decline of the Public Intellectual and the Rise of the PunditChapter 12 The Public Intellectual and the Experience of TotalitarianismChapter 13 The Peripheral Insider: Raymond Aron and the Wages of ReasonChapter 14 Gray is BeautifulPart 15 PRACTICEChapter 16 The Professional Scholar as Public Intellectual: Reflections Prompted by Karl Mannheim, Robert K. Merton, and C. Wright MillsChapter 17 Public Philosophy and International FeminismChapter 18 Wit Irony Fun Games