On Nov 30, 2007 I think it might be worthwhile to take just a switch of time and make some note of the fact that this is the 100th birthday of Jacques Barzun. There are few historians and cultural critics who can publish a (massive "Summa") work in 2000 that included memories and recollections of the German bombardment of Paris in WWI - who can make piquant and erudite proclamations on the decline of culture from his sitting room while under the watchful gaze of a cubist portrait of his mother done by Albert Gleizes (only the third cubist portrait, not the third cubist picture, but the third cubist portrait he is determined to make clear); a man who can do so after having played about in Duchamp's studio as a child and attending an orchestral performance of Stravinsky's "Le Sacre duPrintemps." Darwin, Marx, Wagner: Critique of a Heritage remains the only work of his 37 published books (he is currently at work on his 38th apparently) that I have read in its entirety and I am forced to admit that I did that so long ago I can barely recall its contours to say anything more than that the tone of polemic that runs through the bio-synopsis of all three men in the title have informed the way(s) in which I have formed my own opinions. It is a work that long ago took a hazy place in the upper-bookshelf of my mind as the small and scattered handful that pushed me down the path that I ultimately took. That noted, like the near ubiquitous line in almost every preface to every academic book published wherein the author thanks friends and colleagues for their support and influence while making mention of any errors being their's alone, let me add that neither I, nor those around me, nor any of my students, should hold Monsieur Barzun responsible for my track.

On an aligned, if not parallel, note, I am moved to think that those many (and increasing and too many legislators thank you very much) folks who insist that the teachers of history -- those first-line historians among whom I am (occasionally) proud to admit my place -- teach just the "facts" should be made to read almost anything byBarzun. For those interested, here is a nice piece from last month's New Yorker:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/10/22/071022fa_fact_krystal

Somehow it also seems appropriate that Evel Knievel died today.

fp