Jacques Barzun

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 and grace, bringing to the fore those that have "Puritans as Democrats," "The Monarch's Revolution," "The Artist Prophet and Jester" -- show the recurrent role of great themes throughout the eras. The triumphs and defeats of five hundred years form an inspiring saga that modifies the current impression of one long tale of oppression by white European males. Women and their deeds are prominent, and freedom (even in sexual matters) is not an invention of the last decades. And when Barzun rates the present not as a culmination but a decline, he is in no way a prophet of doom. Instead, he shows decadence as the creative novelty that will burst forth -- tomorrow or the next day. Only after a lifetime of separate studies covering a broad territory could a writer create with such ease the synthesis displayed in this magnificent volume.

500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present

From Dawn to Decadence

Barzun, a professor of history at Columbia University, examines art as religion, as destroyer, as redeemer, and in relation to what he calls "its tempter, science". Developed from his lecture series at the National Gallery, this title explores art's value and its drawbacks for life.

The Use and Abuse of Art

Featuring a new preface by the author, a new edition of the best-selling study offers a provocative critique of the intellectual--and pseudo-intellectual world of American culture, identifying three key enemies of Intellect--Art, Science, and Philanthropy--in the areas of public administration, communications, education, business, scholarship, and conversation and home life. Reprint.

The House of Intellect

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.

Simple & Direct

Henry F. Graff

Modern araştirmaci

Henry Franklin Graff

Presents an updated edition of the classic manual on all aspects of research and writing, including coverage of the Internet and the library.

The Modern Researcher

Essays discuss musical esthetics, biography, criticism, social commentary, and the relationship between art and our perception of reality

On Music and Letters, Culture and Biography, 1940-1980

Critical Questions

Essays by a literary master illuminate the nature of writing, and offer concrete advice on the art of composition

Essays, Explicative and Hortatory

On Writing, Editing, and Publishing

Science

The influential French composer is viewed as a man and an artist in this comprehensive study

An Introduction to the Age of Romanticism

Berlioz and His Century

A Stroll with William James

Analyzes the philosophical and psychological theories of William James and examines their contributions to the present state of Western civilization

Criticizes the current educational system, and offers suggestions on curriculum, testing, grading, and teaching methods

The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning

Begin Here

Critique of a Heritage

Darwin, Marx, Wagner

The essence of culture is interpenetration. From any part of it the searching eye will discover connections with another part seemingly remote. If from my descriptions the reader finds this wide-angled view sharpened or expanded, my purpose in publishing these pages will have been served.

The Culture We Deserve

The present state of the art, with emphasis on developments since the establishment of the long-playing record industry.

Music in American Life

Drawing from the works of influential figures in art and literature, the author traces the development of romanticism from classicism and the emergence of the modern ego.

Classic, Romantic, and Modern

Barzun, Essay on French Verse. From the author of From Dawn to Decadence.

For Readers of English Poetry

An Essay on French Verse

An Anthology of Writing about Music and Musicians from Cellini to Bernard Shaw

Pleasures of Music

PREFACE. THE Author of this very practical treatise on Scotch Loch - Fishing desires clearly that it may be of use to all who had it. He does not pretend to have written anything new, but to have attempted to put what he has to say in as readable a form as possible. Everything in the way of the history and habits of fish has been studiously avoided, and technicalities have been used as sparingly as possible. The writing of this book has afforded him pleasure in his leisure moments, and that pleasure would be much increased if he knew that the perusal of it would create any bond of sympathy between himself and the angling community in general. This section is interleaved with blank shects for the readers notes. The Author need hardly say that any suggestions addressed to the case of the publishers, will meet with consideration in a future edition. We do not pretend to write or enlarge upon a new subject. Much has been said and written-and well said and written too on the art of fishing but loch-fishing has been rather looked upon as a second-rate performance, and to dispel this idea is one of the objects for which this present treatise has been written. Far be it from us to say anything against fishing, lawfully practised in any form but many pent up in our large towns will bear us out when me say that, on the whole, a days loch-fishing is the most convenient. One great matter is, that the loch-fisher is depend- ent on nothing but enough wind to curl the water, -and on a large loch it is very seldom that a dead calm prevails all day, -and can make his arrangements for a day, weeks beforehand whereas the stream- fisher is dependent for a good take on the state of the water and however pleasant and easy it may be for one living near the banks of a good trout stream or river, it is quite another matter to arrange for a days river-fishing, if one is looking forward to a holiday at a date some weeks ahead. Providence may favour the expectant angler with a good day, and the water in order but experience has taught most of us that the good days are in the minority, and that, as is the case with our rapid running streams, -such as many of our northern streams are, -the water is either too large or too small, unless, as previously remarked, you live near at hand, and can catch it at its best. A common belief in regard to loch-fishing is, that the tyro and the experienced angler have nearly the same chance in fishing, -the one from the stern and the other from the bow of the same boat. Of all the absurd beliefs as to loch-fishing, this is one of the most absurd. Try it. Give the tyro either end of the boat he likes give him a cast of ally flies he may fancy, or even a cast similar to those which a crack may be using and if he catches one for every three the other has, he may consider himself very lucky. Of course there are lochs where the fish are not abundant, and a beginner may come across as many as an older fisher but we speak of lochs where there are fish to be caught, and where each has a fair chance. Again, it is said that the boatman has as much to do with catching trout in a loch as the angler. Well, we dont deny that. In an untried loch it is necessary to have the guidance of a good boatman but the same argument holds good as to stream-fishing...

Jacques Barzun

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