Absent Minds

Stefan Collini's Absent Minds provided an intriguing analysis of the question of intellectuals in Britian during the twentieth century...a superb, well-writtian book with few discernible flaws...Collini has tackled a complex subject in an imaginative and compelling fashion, and Absent Minds will only enhance his reputation as the leading scholar of British intellectual history. * Michael D. Stevenson russel:the Journal of Bertrand Russell Studies *
Complex and challenging work. * Times Higher Education Supplement *
This is a book in which playfulness and wit interlock with, rather than adorn or relieve, probing analysis and humane seriousness. * Christopher Hilliard, The Historical Journal *
Absent Minds is an intriguing, sometimes illuminating, book written with elegance and elan. * David Stack, The English Historical Review *
..elegant and challenging * Dominic Sandbrook, Telegraph *
..[a]..witty and detailed study * Bernard Richards, Oxford Magazine *
a long book of dazzling short chapters. Richly layered, provocative and very funny. * Roy Foster, Times Literary Supplement. *
...a splendidly challenging book. * Bernard Bergonzi, The Tablet *
..[includes] many striking items of information * David Simpson, London Review of Books *
clever and entertaining revisionist history....Absent Minds brilliantly exemplifies the sort of human, intelligent and accessible critique he so eloquently advocates' * Michael Saler, TLS *
..[a]. .splendid new book... * Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian *
...[a] magisterial study...Collini is a skilled portraitist and provides us with some judicious, vividly detailed cameos of such figures as Collingwood, T S Eliot, Orwell, A J P Taylor and Freddie Ayer...this magnificently perceptive survey of the British intellectual caste, with a handful of French and American thinkers thrown in for good measure, will prove hard to outstrip as the definitive account of its subject...It is a stylish, finely analytical study... his literary style combines journalism with erudition, in the best manner of the tradition he investigates... it is a superb distillation of several decades of research and reflection....this magnificently perceptive survey of the British intellectual caste, with a handful of French and American thinkers thrown in for good measure, will prove hard to outstrip as the definitive account of its subject. * Terry Eagleton, New Statesman *
Absent Minds is a tour de force by a scholar and critic at the height of his powers * James Wilsdon, Financial Times *
...fascinating...Absent Minds is a provocative and impressive read. * Dominic Sandbrook, The Telegraph *
Stefan Collini promises a panoramic view of British intellectuals in the 20th century...with contemporary disquisitions on 'media studies' and celebrity. Collini is expert at the urbane insertion of a dagger: Should be provocative fun. * Steven Poole, The Guardian *
'Absent Minds is first rate...immensely authoritative' * Winston Fletcher, THES *
a rich, subtle and complex book, which is a constant stimulus to thought...full of witty phrases * Robert Skidelsky, Prospect *
Stefan Collini was arguably the person best placed to write a book as ambitious as this...The book is based on impressive research, and displays, once more, the sharp critical capacities Collini is known for. It cannot be sufficiently stressed that this book should be compulsory reading for anyone interested in the question of intellectuals and intellectual activity in any country, both historically and in the contemporary context. * Historian *
the book is excellent, thoroughly researched, full of unexpectd discussions of half-forgotten names, movements, and periodicals, provoking further study. * Jeremy Tambling, MLR *