SOURCE: “Cornel West Matters: The Celebrity Philosopher,” in Chronicle of Higher Education, September 22, 1993, pp. A8-10.

In the following essay, Coughlin discusses West's emergence as a public intellectual and his controversial social and philosophical perspectives.

It was hard to escape Cornel West this summer.

As professor of religion and director of Princeton University’s highly regarded program in Afro-American studies, Mr. West has been a rising academic star for some time. As a committed “public intellectual,” he is also familiar to a certain segment of readers outside the universities.

But in late April, when Beacon Press published his book Race Matters, Mr. West moved into a different orbit. The collection of essays on race and racism struck a chord with a lot of people—black and white, in and outside of academe. He seemed to be saying something new about America’s chief dilemma, or, if it wasn...