Sign in  |  Register

The New Criterion

It operates as a refuge for a civilizing element in short supply in contemporary America: honest criticism
- The Wall Street Journal
Subscribe Now and get unlimited access

Notebook

November 2007

Jacques Barzun at 100

by Jeffrey Hart

On the centenary of the celebrated historian.

On November 30, 2007, deo volente, Jacques Barzun, one of the most distinguished figures in the history of Columbia University, will be one hundred years old. An undergraduate at Columbia, class of 1927, Barzun remained at the school until his retirement in 1975, earning a Ph. D. and becoming Seth Low Professor of History, Dean of the Graduate School, Provost, and finally a University Professor. Throughout his life he has written over forty books, some of them of permanent importance, all of them useful, and culminating in From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present (2000), his summa as a cultural critic.

How many times in one’s life does one get to welcome a masterpiece, which, without a doubt, that amazing work certainly is? Its 800 pages of text move quickly. With seeming ease, its architecture covers 500 years of Western history, which is the large movement of ...

This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchase

Subscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions)

Subscribe to TNC (Online only)

Purchase article credit and clip this article

If you already have an account login first

Jeffrey Hart's most recent book is The Making of the American Conservative Mind (ISI).


more from this author

This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 26 November 2007, on page 93

Copyright © 2009 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com

http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/jacques-barzun-at-100-3697
rate this article for your user profile

E-mail to friend


The New Criterion

By the author

Modern consolations

by Jeffrey Hart

On Invasions by Adam Kirsch.

Mark Van Doren & American classicism

by Jeffrey Hart

A student and friend remembers the critic.

Buckley at the beginning

by Jeffrey Hart

A look back at fifty years of National Review.

You might also enjoy

Bartók, Parry & Lord: a flawed legacy

by Stephen Schwartz

Debunking the myth of "Homeric" Balkan folk songs.

Faking Jane

by Leanda de Lisle

On Lady Jane Grey & a historical forgery uncovered.

Always in the wrong place

by Anthony Daniels

On the relics of oppression.

Most popular

view more >

download
first delivery

The New Criterion is now optimized for Mobile Devices

New from The New Criterion:
40 page special issue
on our conference

"Free speech in
an age of Jihad"

Events

November 24 2009

OPEN EVENT: Laura Jacobs reading


December 02 2009

Friends Event: The Swallow Anthology Reading


December 17 2009

Friends Event: New Criterion Holiday Party

Webcasts

New Criterion-Social Affairs Unit Conference: Part 4
"The Criminalization of Making Money" by Lionel Shriver, Recorded 9/25/09


New Criterion-Social Affairs Unit Conference: Part 3
"The State and the Threat to Democracy" by Jeremy Black and "The Paradox of the Intellectual and the Future of Capitalism" by Tim Congdon, Recorded on 9/25/2009


New Criterion-Social Affairs Unit Conference: Part 2
"Nice 'N' Easy: The Age of Micro Tyranny" by Mark Steyn, Recorded on 9/25/2009

Weblog