This collection of essays assesses the work of a number of American intellectuals, including Susan Sontag, F.O. Mathieson, Daniel Bell and Hannah Arendt, who have addressed issues of culture and its multifaceted relations to politics, history, sociology and literary criticism. Concentrating on writing since 1940, the essays examine the central themes of American postwar intellectual history, including the continuing reaction to (or against) modernity and technology, the legacies of Marxism and psychoanalysis, and the re-examination of American founding principles and figures in conservative or liberal terms.

Contributions by: Richard Bradbury, Clive Bush, Helen Carr, Laurence J. Friedman, Nick Heffernan, Liam Kennedy, Richard H. King, Michael Kreyling, Jerry Z. Muller