Jacques Barzun

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Jacques Martin Barzun (born November 30, 1907 in Créteil near Paris , † October 25, 2012 in San Antonio ) was an American historian and university professor . Even in old age, he was considered a leading intellectual in the fields of literature, education and cultural history .

Life

Barzun was born in France and was sent to the United States for training in 1920. He completed his entire education at Columbia University in New York City , where he received his doctorate in 1932. He was a member of the Philolexian Society, a group devoted to rhetoric and debate. Barzun taught from 1928 to 1955 at Columbia University, from 1935 as Seth Low Professor of History (a professorship held from 1967 to 1997 by Barzun's student Fritz Stern ). During this time he became one of the co-founders of the discipline of cultural history . From 1955 to 1958 he was Dean of the Graduate School at Columbia University.

In 1936 Barzun married Mariana Lowell, a violinist from Boston, with whom he has three children. After her death in 1979 he married Marguerite Lee Davenport in 1980, with whom he lived and worked in San Antonio , Texas, until his death .

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From Dawn to Decadence , 2001 edition

Barzun's fame contributed to the fact that he taught the "Big Books Course" at Columbia University with his colleague, critic Lionel Trilling . This course lasted a total of four semesters; it dealt with the most important works and thinkers of western civilization.

His most influential works include Darwin, Marx and Wagner (1941), Teacher in America (1945), The House of Intellect (1959), Classic, Romantic and Modern (1961), and Science: The Glorious Entertainment (1964). He was also active as a writer in retirement. One of his more recent books, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present (2000), was on the New York Times bestseller list . According to most historians, critics, and newspapers, this book is considered to be a powerful overview of Western culture and civilization. In addition, Barzun has published around 30 books to date, as well as numerous reviews and essays. He is also considered an expert on the works of Hector Berlioz .

In 1954 Barzun was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . The American Philosophical Society , of which he has been a member since 1984, has recognized Barzun with its most important award, which it describes as The Jacques Barzun Prize in Cultural History . The Society has awarded this prize to the best cultural historians since 1993 . In 2003 Barzun received the United States' highest honor for civilians, the Presidential Medal of Freedom . The American Academy of Arts and Letters , of which he has been a member since 1952, has awarded him its Gold Medal for Criticism twice.

Fonts

  • 1932 The French Race
  • 1937 Race: a Study in Superstition
  • 1939 Of human freedom
  • 1941 Darwin, Marx, Wagner: Critique of a Heritage
  • 1943 Romanticism and the Modern Ego
  • 1945 The Teacher in America
  • 1951 Pleasures of Music
  • 1954 God's Country and Mine: A Declaration of Love, Spiced with a Few Harsh Words
  • 1956 Music in American Life
  • 1956 The Energies of Art
  • 1959 The House of Intellect
  • 1961 The Delights of Detection
  • 1961 Classic, Romantic, and Modern
  • 1964 Science: The Glorious Entertainment
  • 1967 What Man Has Built (introductory booklet to the Great Ages of Man book series)
  • 1968 The American University: How It Runs, Where It Is Going
  • 1969 Berlioz and the Romantic Century (3rd edition)
  • 1971 On Writing, Editing, and Publishing
  • 1971 A Catalog of Crime (with Wendell Hertig Taylor)
  • 1974 Clio and the Doctors
  • 1974 The Use and Abuse of Art
  • 1975 Simple and Direct: A Rhetoric for Writers
  • 1982 Critical Questions
  • 1983 A Stroll with William James
  • 1986 A Word or Two Before You Go: Brief Essays on Language
  • 1989 The Culture We Deserve: A Critique of Disenlightenment
  • 1991 Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning
  • 2000 From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present
  • 2002 A Jacques Barzun Reader
  • 2003 The Modern Researcher (6th edition) (with Henry F. Graff)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cultural historian, author Jacques Barzun dies. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on October 26, 2012 ; accessed on October 26, 2012 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / hosted.ap.org
  2. ^ Member History: Jacques Barzun. American Philosophical Society, accessed April 23, 2018 (English, with short biography).
personal data
SURNAME Barzun, Jacques
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Barzun, Jacques Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American historian and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH November 30, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Créteil
DATE OF DEATH October 25, 2012
Place of death San Antonio