Timothy Brennan Knihy

Drawing on extensive archival sources and hundreds of interviews, this comprehensive biography presents the life of one of the 20th century's most controversial and celebrated intellectuals. The author reveals the subject as a self-doubting yet eloquent advocate for literature's impact on politics and civic life. The narrative charts the intertwined routes of his intellectual development, showcasing him as a study in contrasts: a strategist and cajoler, a New York intellectual with ties to Beirut, a cultural impresario, a television raconteur, a Palestinian negotiator, and an actor portraying himself. The biography explores the Arab influences on his thinking and his mentorship under Lebanese statesmen, modernist auteurs, and New York literati, illustrating his evolution into a scholar whose writings transformed university life. With a blend of brilliance and charm, he forged a groundbreaking counter-tradition of radical humanism amidst techno-scientific dominance and religious conflict. His work redefined the authority of the humanities during the Reagan era, a legacy that endures. Utilizing testimonies from family, friends, students, and even antagonists, along with FBI files and unpublished writings, this portrait captures the intellectual breadth and lasting influence of one of the great minds of the twentieth century.

"A biography of the Palestinian thinker Edward Said"-- Provided by publisher

"In highlighting the shift in America's intellectual culture, Brennan makes the case for seeing belief as an identity. As much as race or ethnicity, political belief, Brennan argues, is itself an identity - one that remains unrecognized and without legal protections while possessing its own distinctive culture. Brennan also champions the idea of cosmopolitanism and critiques those theorists who relegate the left to the status of postcolonial "other.""