SOURCE: “Crawling with Animus,” in New Leader, March 20, 1989, pp. 19–20.

In the following review, Davis offers a negative assessment of Intellectuals, comparing the work to other contradictions and misrepresentations in Johnson's previous works.

If Intellectuals were a movie, it would be called Enemies II. It is the rancorous sequel to the book Paul Johnson published in 1977 called Enemies of Society, with scary chapter headings like “Schools for Attila,” “Heart of Darkness,” “Crime, Madness and Savagery,” “The Return of the Devils.” After a rapid survey of practically every aspect of Western civilization—science, economics, politics, education, the arts—Johnson warned that unless we return to a belief in moral absolutes civilization is doomed. The book received little attention.

A decade later Allan Bloom made an amazing publishing success by sounding the same alarm in The Closing of the American Mind, except that his guide was Plato, not the Pope. Whatever...