About Jacques Barzun

Jacques Martin Barzun (1907–2012) was a French-American historian known for his studies of the history of ideas and cultural history. He wrote about a wide range of subjects, including baseball, mystery novels, and classical music, and was also known as a philosopher of education. The author of more than forty books, Barzun was awarded the American Presidential Medal of Freedom and was made a knight of the French Legion of Honor. He helped revive the reputation of composer Hector Berlioz with the publication in 1950 of Berlioz and the Romantic Century, and he influenced the training of teachers in America through his book, Teacher in America. The historical retrospective From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present, widely considered his magnum opus, was published when he was 93 years old.