Absent Minds by Stefan Collini
(Oxford University Press, £25)
This ambitious work is about British attitudes to intellectuals. Specifically, it is about why the British have been so reluctant to admit that they have intellectuals. Collini calls it the “denial” or “absence” or “exceptionalist” thesis. The claim to immunity from intellectual influences is part of Britain’s definition of itself. Today hardly anyone bothers to deny that we have intellectuals, because the species is almost extinct. Perhaps a trace of the denial survives in the anti-Europeanism of many commentators.
Collini has little trouble in showing that the “denial” thesis is based on an unbalanced picture of what it is to be an intellectual. It is mainly derived from France, where the intellectual was associated, at the time of the Dreyfus affair, with a radical political role. It is France, in fact, which is exceptional in regarding the intellectual as the political conscience of the nation. Britain’s self-perceived exceptionalism in not having intellectuals of this kind is quite close to the norm for western societies. In Germany, the cultural standard was provided by the “Herr Professor” defending kultur against intellectual scribblers. American intellectuals used to lament their absence of power and prestige relative to business. The postwar integration of academics into the power structure (with rewards to match) has brought a mature satisfaction with their role.
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