September 21, 2001

Hayek and Fanon: Minds That Didn't Meet

By CARLIN ROMANO

For several seasons in the late 1970s, former Tonight Show host Steve Allen -- also the author of more than 40 books -- hosted a PBS series called Meeting of Minds, which brought together a handful of odd visitors for a unique talk show.

The lineups defied science, chronology, and good party-planning: Guests often came from different centuries and, you might say, universes. The first show served up Theodore Roosevelt, Cleopatra, Thomas Aquinas, and Thomas Paine. The fifth featured