Conservative historian Paul Johnson wears his ideology proudly on his sleeve in this often ruthless dissection of the thinkers and artists who (in his view) have shaped modern Western culture, having replaced some 200 years ago "the old clerisy as the guides and mentors of mankind." Taking on the likes of Karl Marx, Bertrand Russell, Lillian Hellman, and Noam Chomsky in turn, Johnson examines one idol after another and finds them all to have feet of clay. In his account, for instance, Ernest Hemingway emerges as an artistic hero who labored endlessly to forge a literary style unmistakably his own, but also as a deeply flawed man whose concern for the perfect phrase did not carry over to a concern for the women who loved him. Gossipy and sharply opinionated, Johnson's essay in cultural history spares no one.
Does it really matter that Henrik Ibsen was vain and arrogant, that Jean-Paul Sartre was incontinent? In Johnson's view, it does: these all-too-human foibles disqualify them, and other thinkers, from presuming to criticize the shortcomings of society. "Beware intellectuals," he concludes (though, given the subjects of his book, it seems he means intellectuals only of the left). "Not only should they be kept well away from the levers of power, they should also be objects of particular suspicion when they seek to offer collective advice." Whether one agrees or not, Johnson's profiles are frequently amusing and illuminating, as when he suggests that the only proletarian Karl Marx ever knew in person was the poor maid who worked for him for decades and was never paid, except in room and board, for her labors.
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出自本书最后一段： 我们的探讨现在要结束了，从世俗的知识分子开始取代旧式的神职人员，成为人类的引路人和导师，至今正好是两百年左右。对于那些力图教导人类的知识分子，我们已经查看了他们当中的许多个案，考察了他们是否具有完成这一任务的道德和判断力的资格。我们特别...
评分想必作者肯定不喜欢尼采的超人思想吧？ 作者所谓的知识分子“抽象”思考的人，是保罗定义为作者本人必须符合其“抽象”思考的人的未来类型。 尼采的超人思想是追求的一种人的类型，是超越现在的未来人，他高屋建瓴的仰望的未来的人的类型，而不是现存的人。保罗真是误导了广大...
评分上个月本人一篇《我们为什么要批评政府》的文章一经贴出，很快引来了不少的关注和争论，其中关于鲁迅的话题也是备受大家热议的焦点之一。 因此我觉得，今天有必要将鲁迅的话题深入一下，以便再次供大家讨论和参考。 （一） 在提及鲁迅之前，我们不妨先来看一部在...
评分这本书其实就是历史学家写的八卦野史，但其震撼人心之处在于主角都是我们常以为“伟光正”的著名知识分子。保罗约翰逊为我们揭示了这些整日高喊“正义”，“道德”，“博爱”的知识名流，其实个人品质并不高尚：卢梭忘恩负义，雪莱不守信用，托尔斯泰专断残暴，罗素喜欢胡说八...
评分刚读毕《知识分子》（保罗·约翰逊著），国内发行本缺关于马克思的那一章，网上有译文。 作者认为知识分子应为本世纪那些造成巨大社会灾难的计划负责，作者对一些著名知识分子追名逐利、言行不一进行了揭露（从学术看很难进行事实反驳），这是本书的价值之一。但是作者选取的十...
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以记者的笔法写伟人八卦 有趣 有料 也有偏见
评分以记者的笔法写伟人八卦 有趣 有料 也有偏见
评分以记者的笔法写伟人八卦 有趣 有料 也有偏见
评分痛骂左派，阶级立场鲜明。
评分痛骂左派，阶级立场鲜明。
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