Authors: Wilfred M McClay
Publish Date: 2008/12/09
Volume: 46, Issue: 1, Pages: 21-28
Abstract
The reception of David Riesman’s classic sociological work The Lonely Crowd exemplifies both the possibilities and perils of the work of public intellectuals The book was almost universally misread as a paean to innerdirection and a lament upon the decline of the independent American spirit But it was something rather more different and more complex than either of these thingsThis symposium is based on a conference held on May 15 and 16 2008 under the auspices of the Institute on Culture Religion and World Affairs at Boston University Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation for its generous support in making the conference possible
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