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11.29.2002
Happy Birthday Jacques Barzun!
Born in France in 1907, Jacques Barzun is one of our civilization's last true gentlemanly scholars. He has been a champion of broad liberal education and his teaching methods and writings have influenced the way Western Civilization has been taught for more than fifty years. For years a fixture at Columbia University, Barzun fought against academic pedantry and demanded of his students and colleagues clarity and honesty in their work and created one of the most useful writing guides ever written, Simple and Direct, which has become a must-have for any writer.
Author of over sixty books, including classics like Race: A Study in Modern Superstition (1937), Darwin, Marx, Wagner (1941), Romanticism and the Modern Ego (1945), The Teacher in America (1945), The House of Intellect (1959), Classic, Romantic, and Modern (1961), Science: The Glorious Entertainment (1964), The American University (1968), Berlioz and the Romantic Century (3d ed. 1969), The Use and Abuse of Art (1974), and Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning (1991).
His latest work, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present, has become an instant classic and possibly the only 800+ page history book to become a bestseller.
He is, in short- one of The Greats. His works are not only informative and illuminating, but witty and a joy to read. He fights against boredom and his works have become indispensable for anyone seeking to know about their world.
Today Mssr. Barzun turns 95. Those wishing to wish him a Happy Birthday may do so here.
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