This collection of essays assesses the work of a number of 20th-century American intellectuals who have addressed issues of culture and its relationship to politics, history, sociology and literary criticism. It includes the work of Susan Sontag, Erik Erikson, Margaret Mead, Garry Wills, Frederic Jameson, F.O. Matthiessen, Daniel Bell and Hannah Arendt. Concentrating on writing since 1940, the essays examine the central themes of American post-war 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.