Lingua Franca covered the intellectual life of the 1990s--when American scholars took to the public stage as never before--with wit and passion and helped establish many of the leading voices in American journalism today. Dedicated to the proposition that academia can compete for interest with Hollywood and Washington, Lingua Franca explained, in depth, the ideas of the decade--and told some of its least likely stories. In Quick Studies a physicist humiliates the gurus of postmodernism in an astonishing hoax; the "Dirty Harry" of literary theory renounces his calling; a Romanian dissident is assassinated in a faculty lavatory; and a leading feminist faces charges of sexual harassment. Anyone concerned with the key debates of our time, and their idiosyncratic debaters, cannot afford to miss this book. It is nothing less than a collective portrait of the American intellectual in its native habits. During its brief tenure from 1990 to 2001, Lingua Franca filled a unique niche, covering contemporary controversies, trends, people, and issues in academia. Its authors, drawn from the ranks of both journalists and scholars, entertained and informed their readers by approaching the escapades and ideas of intellectuals as newsworthy. The themes represented by the roughly three dozen essays in this collection stem from both the scholarship and the mundane work situations of academics. Included are a discussion of the controversies surrounding interpretations of research on chimpanzee and bonobo societies; Alan Sokal's article unveiling his infamous hoax; comments from a professor troubled by his experience on a search committee charged with accomplishing a minority hire, accompanied by a response from the successful candidate; and an examination of the divergence of thinking around 1960s scholarship as approached by older vs. younger historians. For its inimitable insights into the intelligentsia of the 1990s, this collection is highly recommended, especially for any academic library that did not hold a subscription to the periodical. Jean S. Caspers, Linfield Coll., McMinnville, OR Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. Praise for Lingua Franca "An absolutely invaluable and highly influential resource . . . [Lingua Franca] invented a new way of writing about ideas-- a new kind of journalism." --Ron Rosenbaum, The New York Observer "A must-read." --David Kirkpatrick, New York Times "One of the few bright new hopes for literary culture ... It's gone, but it lives on." --Ron Rosenbaum, The New York Observer "The standard against which most other intellectual journalism [is] measured."-- The New York Times "Surprising, substantive, and sophisticated"-- The Washington Post "Lively, learned articles . . . that combined top-notch reporting with vivid narratives,"-- Chicago Tribune Alexander Star edited Lingua Franca from 1995 until 2001. He is currently the Ideas editor of The Boston Globe. His writing has appeared in The New York Times , The New Yorker , The New Republic , and the London Review of Books .