Reassesses the stature and contributions of the three, points out their similarities, and attempts to explain why they have come to be so revered.

Interpretation, based on the authors personal association with higher education activities, of the role and problems of the university in the USA - covers trends, administrative aspects and management problems, student behaviour, research activities, etc.

Philosophical treatise on social, political and intellectual freedom.

The title of this collection of short essays on language and correct usage by one of America's eminent scholars is from Othello's last soliloquy. Most of these pieces appeared previously, primarily in American Scholar, The Atlantic and Columbia magazines, which Barzun has revised for consistency and timeliness and added material to balance the book. Among his themes are vigilance against corruption of English by technocrats, and "media hacks", the...

"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 Renaissance and Reformation down to the present in the double light of its own time and our pressing concerns. He introduces...

Discusses the strengths and weaknesses of intellectualism in the twentieth century.

As the "social anchor" in middle-class homes of the nineteenth century, the piano was simultaneously an elegant piece of drawing-room furniture, a sign of bourgeois prosperity, and a means of introducing the young to music. In this admirably balanced and leisurely account of the popular instrument, the late, internationally known concert pianist Arthur Loesser takes a "piano's-eye view" of the recent social history of Western Europe and the United...