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.
具体描述
读后感
但我还要再进一步说，在我们这个悲剧的世纪，千百万无辜的生命牺牲于改善全部人性的那些计划——最主要的教训之一是：提防知识份子。 不但要把他们同权利杠杆隔离开来，而且当他们试图集体提供劝告时，他们应当成为特别怀疑的对象。提放知识分子的委员会、讨论会和联盟，不要...
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...
评分 评分书中很多人都是我其实很喜欢的，包括卢梭、雪莱、罗素、萨特和波伏瓦等。 也许正是因为很喜欢，所以并不惮看到约翰逊不留情面的批评。 有时候我们自己也很难区分清楚，自己究竟是喜欢一个人的思想，还是喜欢这个人所竖立的公众形象。 约翰逊的书，一方面给我们敲了警钟，不...
用户评价
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
评分关于马克思那篇中文版删除。
评分关于马克思那篇中文版删除。
评分以记者的笔法写伟人八卦 有趣 有料 也有偏见
相关图书
本站所有内容均为互联网搜索引擎提供的公开搜索信息，本站不存储任何数据与内容，任何内容与数据均与本站无关，如有需要请联系相关搜索引擎包括但不限于百度，google,bing,sogou 等
© 2025 book.wenda123.org All Rights Reserved. 图书目录大全 版权所有