La palabra ambigua

Spaniards have been talking about intellectuals for more than a hundred years - well, badly and regularly. But what is behind this elusive term? Is it true that intellectuals played a fundamental role in the twenties and thirties of the last century, and that they were also important during the Transition? Why have they been accused so many times of having betrayed their alleged essence? What place did the different political movements of the 20th century give them? Why, when the word has been used to refer to women, has it also served to question their femininity? And since when has it been said that the intellectual is no longer as influential as it was in the past, that he is "in crisis" or even "has died"? The ambiguous word examines what has been said in Spain about intellectuals from the end of the 19th century to the present day. In this way, he reconstructs the image that Spanish society has had of the people to whom the term designated: their mission, their behavior, their virtues, their mistakes, their relationship with power or their responsibility in everything that happened since their arrival. from the Second Republic until the crisis of 2008. In this brilliant and original essay -based on a large number of sources ranging from philosophical works to rock songs-, David Jiménez Torres exposes the changing contours of a concept to which Ortega referred as "the ambiguous word", and offers a new way of peeking into Spanish history, politics and culture.