"Pels uses detailed case studies to examine the ambiguous strangerhood of political intellectuals both on the left and the right such as Marx, Durkheim, Barres, Sorel, Freyer and Hendrik de Man. From the chequered genealogy of standpoint thinking, he develops a reflexive and critical sociology of spokespersonship which goes beyond the traditional dualisms of truth versus power, might versus right and left versus right. In doing so, he explores a new conception of objectivity which is rooted not in the methodology but in the social distribution of doubt, and which throws new light on the old question of whether outsiders are privileged with a deeper or more comprehensive view and may speak for a larger social reality.".