He often mentions a book edited by Michael Novak, the Catholic theologian and conservative intellectual, called "Democracy and Mediating Structures: A Theological Inquiry".
An accomplished example of Allen's early style is "The Whore of Mensa," a 1974 casual about a private detective investigating an intellectual call-girl ring.
In an open letter to President François Hollande, France's most public intellectual called for measures, including a no-flight zone, to confront the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
Bernard-Henri Lévy, a celebrity intellectual, called it "pornographic .Yet many French people, particularly women, are not sure that they like the look of the character who has emerged in recent months.
In the Reagan White House, full of gung-ho cold warriors, the book everyone read (according to speechwriter Peggy Noonan) was How Democracies Perish, by a gloomy, pretentious French intellectual called Jean-François Revel.
The writer's true identity was not revealed until 10 years ago, when, in an interview with John de St Jorre, a British journalist and some-time foreign correspondent of The Observer, an impeccably dressed 86-year-old intellectual called Dominique Aury acknowledged that the fantasies of castles, masks and debauchery were hers.
Between 948 and 950 he may have held a bishopric in Aachen, where he debated Christian ideas about the Trinity with a Jewish intellectual called Salomon, probably the Byzantine ambassador of that name.
A prominent list of German intellectuals called for Mr Snowden to be given asylum in Germany.
Furthermore, there was a group of young German intellectuals called "Exis" (from existentialists) who began frequenting the clubs.
