Since 2012, Public Books has championed a new kind of community for intellectual engagement, discussion, and action. An online magazine that unites the best of the university with the openness of the internet, Public Books is where new ideas are debuted, old facts revived, and dangerous illusions dismantled. Here, young scholars present fresh thinking to audiences outside the academy, accomplished authors weigh in on timely issues, and a wide range of readers encounter the most vital academic insights and explore what they mean for the world at large.

Think in Public: A Public Books Reader presents a selection of inspiring essays that exemplify the magazine’s distinctive approach to public scholarship. Gathered here are Public Books contributions from today’s leading thinkers, including Jill Lepore, Imani Perry, Kim Phillips-Fein, Salamishah Tillet, Jeremy Adelman, N. D. B. Connolly, Namwali Serpell, and Ursula K. Le Guin. The result is a guide to the most exciting contemporary ideas about literature, politics, economics, history, race, capitalism, gender, technology, and climate change by writers and researchers pushing public debate about these topics in new directions. Think in Public is a lodestone for a rising generation of public scholars and a testament to the power of knowledge.

Contributions by: Judith Butler, Fred Turner, Lilly Irani, Stacey Balkan, Imani Perry, Frances Negrón-Muntaner, Nathan Connolly, Matthew Engelke, Philip Gorski, Kim Phillips-Fein, Max Holleran, Najwa al-Qattan, Jeremy Adelman, Destin Jenkins, Andrew Perrin, Kieran Setiya, Shannon Mattern, Jill Lepore, Suzy Hansen, James Vernon, Lynn French, Salamishah Tillet, Matthew Clair, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Ursula K. Le Guin, John Plotz, Christopher Schaberg, Eli Rosenblatt, Barbara Cassin, Rebecca Falkoff, Haruo Shirane, Karl Ashoka Britto, Joseph Jonghyun Jeon, Marah Gubar, Anne E. Fernald, Namwali Serpell, Tess McNulty, Mark McGurl, Nicholas Dames, Jan Mieszkowski, Karen Dunak, Daegan Miller, John R. McNeill