Where did all the public intellectuals go? Reflections on <i>The Last Intellectuals</i>

Abstract This article is a re‐examination of Russell Jacoby's 1987 classic The Last Intellectuals. In the article I question whether Jacoby was correct in his view that the 1950s generation of intellectuals were the last to address the public. Then I look at modern examples of intellectuals to see how contemporary public intellectuals compare to the public intellectuals that Jacoby discussed.