The French intelligentsia shifted from academic to publishing to media dominance over a century

Evidence

Elsewhere, in his delightful polemic on the vicissitudes of the French intelligentisa, Teachers, Writers, Celebrities: Intellectuals in Modern France (French publication 1979; English translation 1981), Debray establishes three periods in the history of this intelligentsia, from 1880 onwards: the first (1880–1930) dominated by schools and universities; the second (from 1930 to the 1960s) dominated by publishing; and the third (inaugurated by the Events of 1968 and still ascendant) dominated by the media. This last one might designate a dark age perpetrated by the silver screen. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 660

Categorization

• SHARE: Debray’s three-period periodization of French intellectuals (academy, then publishing, then media) is a sharp framework worth sending to anyone working on intellectual history or media studies.
• CANDY: The ‘dark age perpetrated by the silver screen’ is a memorable, quotable jab.