Jacques Barzun

When I was studying for my Master of Sacred Theology degree, one of the textbooks in a historiography class was The Modern Researcher by Jacques Barzun and Henry F. Graff. Barzun died this week. These lines from his obituary in the "Washington Post" caught my eye:

“In essays and a series of books on American education, including 'Teacher in America' (1945) and 'The American University: How It Runs, Where It Is Going' (1968), Dr. Barzun presented education as having a mandate to impart 'common knowledge and common reference.' He inveighed against 'the gangrene of specialism' in college offerings that he thought would cause the 'individual mind [to be] doomed to solitude and the individual heart to drying up'.”

[From “Jacques Barzun, wide-ranging cultural historian, dies at 104” Washington Post, 26 October 2012 (emphasis added)]

I like that.