Julien Benda (1867-1956) was a French cultural critic and novelist. He is best known for his La Trahison des clercs ("the treason of the intellectuals"), which became a lasting international catch-cry.

Julien Benda was born in Paris on December 27, 1867, the only son of a wealthy, assimilated Jewish family. His father had moved from Brussels, abandoning hope for an engineering career. He married his cousin (an active socialite) and became head of his uncle's export firm. He taught his son "the religion of intelligence." Young Benda was educated at élite Paris lycées (Charlemagne, Condorcet, Henry IV, and Saint-Louis).

He became head of the family firm at age 21, when his father died, but his interests lay elsewhere. He too aspired to a career in engineering. Failing entry to the Ecole Polytechnique, he studied engineering at the Ecole Centrale. Finding the course distasteful because it emphasized application, he...