One of the major virtues of liberal society in the past was that it made possible such a variety of styles of intellectual life–one can find men notable for being passionate and rebellious, others for being elegant and sumptuous, or spare and astringent, clever and complex, patient and wise, and some equipped mainly to observe and endure. What matters is the openness and generosity needed to comprehend the varieties of excellence that could be found even in a single and rather parochial society.
-Richard Hofstadter, Anti-Intellectualism in America
Matthew Frye-Castillo 