John Lukacs, the Lettered Reactionary Nov 21, 2009
Nonetheless, his admirers have included some of the keenest minds of 20th-century America: the leftist intellectual historian H. Stuart Hughes, political columnist George Will, cultural historian and social critic Jacques Barzun, and the legendary scholar-diplomat George Kennan. Yet even these distinguished figures have shown patterns of thinking and position-taking that lend themselves to definite classification. (The American Conservative)
Making a Monkey Out of Darwin Jul 4, 2009
Historian Jacques Barzun believes Darwinism brought on World War I: "Since in every European country between 1870 and 1914 there was a war party demanding armaments, an individualist party demanding ruthless competition, an imperialist party demanding a free hand over backward peoples, a socialist party demanding the conquest of power and a racialist party demanding internal purges against aliens -- all of them, when appealsto greed and glory failed, invoked Spencer and Darwin, which was to say... (Human Events Online)
Letters to the editor Jul 2, 2009
The authors of environmental impact reports should keep in mind a quip attributed to historian Jacques Barzun: "The use of input as a verb makes me want to outgo and upthrow.". ROBERT COATS Berkeley. (San Francisco Chronicle -- Opinion)
Stars come out at Beacon Awards Jun 22, 2009
"The great essayist Jacques Barzun once wrote that whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball. And if you have followed America's modern struggle for civil rights from Jackie to Hank and beyond, Barzun was a pretty smart fellow. All three of our honorees today deserve the honor both because of what they accomplished in the spotlight and what they did after their careers in the stadium, the arena, the studio had tapered off. It is amazing when I think about the... (MLB.com -- Chi White Sox White Sox)
Lionel Trilling: A Modern Burke Jun 16, 2009
My own understanding of the permanent usefulness of Burke came a few years later in the seminar Trilling and Jacques Barzun taught for selected graduate students ... For many years Lionel and Jacques Barzun would teach it together. (The American Conservative)
