Jacques Barzun (1907-2012) was one of the preeminent historians of the 20th century. Valedictorian of the 1920 class at Columbia, where he also received his Ph.D., Barzun wrote extensively on culture and education while serving in professorial and leadership roles at Cambridge and Columbia. His magnum opus, From Dawn to Decadence (2000), which traces the
READ MOREClimate change can kill. Not just furnace-like summer heat with its killer bushfires, not killer floods sweeping away livestock, houses and motorists, not killer cyclones lifting roofs, toppling trees, and smashing power lines. But also felo de se, self-slaughter, shuffling off this mortal coil. Remember 104-year-old David Goodall, the Australian academic who travelled to Switzerland
READ MOREFor many years, marriage was something to which most young people aspired. Love, marriage, and the baby carriage were just the normal and expected sequence of life. But while many of today’s young people still hope marriage is in their future, the chance of that happening seems to be lower. According to Pew Research, only
READ MOREWith Memorial Day Weekend approaching, many Americans may hit the road early to avoid traffic to their favorite holiday destinations, or catch a Thursday flight to make a weekend stay at Grandma’s less rushed. For some German families, who celebrated a three-day weekend last week, taking their kids out of school to get a jumpstart
READ MOREIn a New York Times article about President Trump scaling back regulations, reporters Binyamin Appelbaum and Jim Tankersley report ”there is little historical evidence tying regulation levels to economic growth”. They support this sweeping claim only with a quote from Jared Bernstein, a former chief economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, who says: ”The
READ MOREJohn Cleese, the English actor and comedian known for the Monty Python films, thinks political correctness is getting a little out of hand. He’s hardly the first comedian to say so, of course. Funny men such as Jerry Seinfeld, Mel Brooks, and others have complained that political correctness is killing comedy. Cleese, like Seinfeld, says
READ MOREAccording to psychologists Philip and Carolyn Cowan, there are a few well-researched, but often overlooked aspects to ensuring solid development in a child’s life. The Cowans, both professors emeriti from UC Berkeley, explain that the first crucial component is the positive involvement of a father in the life of the child. The second, however, is
READ MOREIn elementary school, students are taught various types of figurative language—idioms, metaphors, and hyperboles. Most students quickly learn that words must be taken in context to properly understand their intended meaning. We also learn that many words and phrases have more than one meaning. “Stand up and be counted.” Is a person in a
READ MOREIt’s graduation season and everyone is talking about success and how best to achieve it. This, of course, includes encouraging those who are victims of tragic circumstances to overcome their difficult pasts. One student who has done just that is Rob Henderson, a 2018 graduate of Yale University. Henderson’s story, which he explains in the
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