Jacques Barzun
Jacques Barzun is a noted contributor to Encyclopaedia Britannica online. Read Britannica's biography of Jacques Barzun
Jacques Barzun (1907-2012) was a French-born American teacher, historian, and author who influenced higher education in the United States by his insistence that undergraduates avoid early specialization and instead be given broad instruction in the humanities. Long associated with Columbia University, he was the author of numerous books ranging widely over art, education, and culture.
In 2003 Barzun received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. He received the Great Teacher Award of the Society of Columbia Graduates in 2007.
Photograph: Courtesy of University Archives, Columbia University in the City of New York
Primary Contributions (4)
Edgar Allan Poe was an American short-story writer, poet, critic, and editor who is famous for his cultivation of mystery and the macabre. His tale “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841) initiated the modern detective story, and the atmosphere in his tales of horror is unrivaled in American…
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Publications (6)
From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life
Highly Regarded Here And Abroad For Some Thirty Works Of Cultural History And Criticism, Master Historian Jacques Barzun Has Now Set Down In One Continuous Narrative The Sum Of His Discoveries And Conclusions About The Whole Of Western Culture Since 1500. In This Account, Barzun Describes What Western Man Wrought From The Renaisance And Reformation Down To The Present In The Double Light Of Its Own Time And Our Pressing Concerns. He Introduces Characters And Incidents With His Unusual Literary Style...
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The Culture We Deserve : A Critique of Disenlightenment
Twelve essays exploring aspects of literacy and art criticism, retrospective sociology and the effects of relativism on moral behavior. Publishers Weekly In 12 wise, stimulating essays and lectures, a noted Columbia University scholar examines today's declining culture. Ours, he observes with disgust and discernment, is a period of specialization in which the ``torrent of information'' compiled is unnecessary, in which college students are diverted to the ``minutiae of analytic...
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House of Intellect, The
in This International Bestseller, Originally Published In 1959, Jacques Barzun, Acclaimed Author Of from Dawn To Decadence, Takes On The Whole Intellectual — Or Pseudo-intellectual — World, Attacking It For Its Betrayal Of Intellect. Intellect Is Despised And Neglected, Barzun Says, Yet Intellectuals Are Well Paid And Riding High. He Details This Great Betrayal In Such Areas As Public Administrations, Communications, Conversation And Home Life, Education, Business, And Scholarship....
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Simple & Direct
A fter a lifetime of writing and editing prose, Jacques Barzun has set down his view of the best ways to improve one's style. His discussions of diction, syntax, tone, meaning, composition, and revision guide the reader through the technique of making the written word clear and agreeable to read. Exercises, model passages both literary and casual, and hundreds of amusing examples of usage gone wrong show how to choose the right path to self-expression in forceful and distinctive words.
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The Modern Researcher
This Classic Introduction To The Techniques Of Research And The Art Of Expression Is Used Widely In History Courses, But Is Also Appropriate For Writing And Research Methods Courses In Other Departments. Barzun And Graff Thoroughly Cover Every Aspect Of Research, From The Selection Of A Topic Through The Gathering, Analysis, Writing, Revision, And Publication Of Findings Presenting The Process Not As A Set Of Rules But Through Actual Cases That Put The Subtleties Of Research In A Useful Context....
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