What We Talk About When We Talk About Intellectuals: Ideas and Illusions seeks to shed light on the complex meaning behind the concept of intellectual, as well as present means of better illuminating the role of the intellectual in social life, in particular in the cultural-symbolic field framed by the national. Chapters include a survey of key concepts, starting with a historical and theoretical understanding of the term, and include controversies surrounding this term, which abound. It continues by looking at the ties that bind the intellectual to the national, and more specifically their role in shaping and sustaining it. Finally, the book takes a look at the role intellectuals played in the dissolution of Yugoslavia.