Perspective

Intellectuals is written in the third person point of view with the narrator being the author, Paul Johnson. This approach allows Johnson to provide the background information that the reader needs to understand the points that the author is making. This is the only approach that could be used in a book of this nature. It allows the author the greatest amount of flexibility in the amount and kinds of information that the author wants to present and this is the kind of book where the reader requires background information.

The perspective of the book is basically the perspective of the author. He used different sources for each of the intellectuals he examined. He draws together this information from various sources and presents the information in a coherent manner. The reader is allowed to draw his/her own conclusion from the material the author presents. The author does...