Language: en
Meaning: (idiomatic)Awell-known,intelligent,learnedperson whose written works and othersocialandculturalcontributions are recognized not only byacademicaudiences and readers, but also by many members of societyin general.2001June 13,Chris Hedges, “Public Lives: Watching Bush's Language, and Television”, inNew York Times, retrieved24 October 2012:"I have always taken the role ofpublic intellectualvery, very seriously," said Mark Crispin Miller, 51, a professor of media ecology at New York University. "Apublic intellectualis someone who engages in intellectual pursuits, airs intellectual concerns in a way the broad, literate public can understand. The tradition thrives in Europe, but the American public does not have the same expectation of its intellectuals."2005, Louis Mazzari, "New Introduction" toPreface To Peasantry(1936) by Arthur Franklin Raper,→ISBN,p. xvii (Google preview):As a sociologist, Raper concerned himself with everything from the legal impediments African Americans faced to the way blacks and whites arranged themselves around the hot stove in a small-town general store. He was among the first generation of southernpublic intellectuals, an engaged academic in a region where anti-intellectualism had a long and healthy tradition.2012June 11, Nate Rawlings, "Paul Fussell" (Obituary),Time:After years of teaching 18th century British literature, in 1975 he crossed from academic topublic intellectualwithThe Great War and Modern Memory, a seminal book examining how World War I, by its scope and immense carnage, caused a disillusionment that plagued Western society for decades.
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