Before all the talk about "public intellectuals," Michael Walzer was one. For 50 years, he has gone back and forth between positions at Princeton and Harvard Universities and then at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, New Jersey, where he is now emeritus. His writings appear regularly in "Dissent" magazine, which he has co-edited for many years, and "The New Republic," where he is a contributing editor. As he wrote in "The Company of Critics: Social Criticism and Political Commitment in the Twentieth Century," he believes that "criticism follows from connection." That goes against the usual view that an intellectual surveys politics from an Archimedean height, which creates a "thin" attachment. Walzer reasons that if an intellectual were truly separate from other people, "a stranger, really disinterested, it is hard to see why he would involve himself in their affairs." Walzer was active in the civil-rights movement in the early 1960s, but as the decade wore on he focused more on the Vietnam War. His speaking and organizing about Vietnam prompted him to think about political obligations--resulting in "Obligations: Essays on Disobedience, War, and Citizenship" and "Political Action: A Practical Guide to Movement Politics"--and about war--resulting in "Just and Unjust Wars." In this article, Walzer discusses his work and career.