As a class, American intellectuals have never been more than minor players in electoral politics.
That, surely, has been the key source of its attraction to many American intellectuals.
But the post is one of the most important ones for American intellectuals, who are volunteering advice.
There is a stratum of American intellectuals who are always looking for the future paradise.
Most American intellectuals are hopelessly provincial when it comes to dance.
American intellectuals aren't compiling a very good record either - or not when it comes to responding to the events of last month.
He goes after the pretensions of American intellectuals, families, marriages and traditions.
Talent, creativity and public attention give American intellectuals, right or left, a megaphone.
He has been described as "one of the leading American intellectuals of the postwar era."
In his view the academicizing of the American intellectual has meant a loss of contact with large public issues.