In this collection of personal and revealing essays, Clifford Geertz, one of the most influential thinkers of our time, discusses some of the most urgent issues facing intellectuals today. He explores the nature of his anthropological work in relation to a broader public, serving as the foremost spokesperson of his generation of scholars, those who came of age after World War II. His reflections are written in a style that both entertains and disconcerts as they engage us in topics ranging from moral relativism to the relationship between cultural and psychological differences, from the diversity and tension among activist faiths to "ethnic conflict" in today's politics. Available Light treats the reader to an analysis of the American intellectual climate by someone who did much to shape it.
