58 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Buy two of this classic!, March 1, 2002
This is a book that should be bought two at a time (one to lend to friends). Serious students should return to it every few years along with George Orwell's essay on politics and the English language and C Wright Mills' appendix on intellectual craftsmanship in "The Sociological Imagination".
Barzun approached his special field of cultural history in a refreshingly irreverent manner. "You may like to think of culture - I often do - as an enormous pumpkin, hard to penetrate, full of uncharted hollows and recesses for cultural critics to get lost in, and stuffed with seeds of uncertain contents and destiny."
Early in his career he produced a connected series of books, starting with 'The French Race" (1932) and 'Race: A Study in Superstition" (1937 and 1965), moving on to "Darwin, Marx, Wagner" (1941) and "Romanticism and the Modern Ego" (1943). The major themes that connect these studies are (a) the appeal to race, class or nation to supply a new motive power for social change and (b) the an attempt to inject new life into the idols of Progress and Fatalism.
A subsequent theme in his work is the parlous state of learning and especially the widespread lack of understanding of the "house rules" for productive intellectual activity. The relevant books here are "The House of Intellect" (1959), "Science: The Glorious Entertainment"(1964) and "The American University" (1968).
The message of "The House of Intellect" is that its inhabitants, the intellectuals themselves, have trashed the house. The blame cannot be placed with the crassness or greed of big business, the shallowness of a consumer society, or the ignorance of the uneducated. The major malign influences are distorted perceptions of the nature and function of Art, Science and Philanthropy. These things have their value and their place, but Barzun shows how they have become diverted from their proper ends to impose in a destructive manner upon the conditions of scholarship and the life of the mind.
His comments on art later grew into a whole volume, "The Uses and Abuses of Art" and his views on the uses and abuses of science expanded into a whole book as well. The spirit of Philanthropy is expressed though the well-meant allocations of funds from the great foundations. However Barzun details how the net effect of this funding, especially that provided for conferences, is to dissipate rather than to concentrate thought, to take up time and effort on apparent novelties at the expense of solid and genuine but not superficially exciting or "relevant" work. A whole "grant application" industry emerged, engaging time and talents for trivial purposes, often enough dedicated to outright hokum, to the detriment of the proper function of intellectuals and intellect.
This book has "white dwarf" status because there is more in it each time it is re-read. Further online commentary on Barzun's achievement can be found with a google search Barzun + Rathouse.
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50 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read It!, December 7, 2003
I recently read Barzun's book "Critical Questions" in search of some better understanding of my reactions to some contemporary art. I have rediscovered one of the most incisive thinkers and clearest writers I have ever had the pleasure to read.
I have a strong memory of reading "The House of Intellect" as a college student. It is one of the very few books that I can remember from those long ago days when I was only learning to learn. "The House..." had a positive and long lasting effect on my desire to study and study well.
I am in the process of rereading "The House..." Barzun points to example after example in the world around him (50 years ago) of prominent critics and public opinion molders who are merely aping current fashions in thought and who are simply bending and arranging facts to support their pet opinions.
You will learn from Barzun why "The House..." must have scholarly discipline which alone can offer us a shot at truth. Those who are labor in the intellectual vineyards are failing themselves and the public if they allow themselves to shortcut their research, report merely what is acceptable or just plain manipulate their facts.
The points Barzun makes are just as true today as they were in the 1950's. The trends in faulty thinking and reporting on certain topics continue up to 2004. Reading Barzun at least will help you to view what you read and what you hear with a more reliable filter.
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29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Barzun rocks the house, November 22, 2003
I came upon this book when reading reviews for Barzun's more recent "From Dawn to Decadence". The very positive reviews about "The House of intellect" are absolutely right...this is a masterpiece. Where "From Dawn to Decadence" is a wonderful historical panorama, "The House of Intellect" instructs how the intellect should properly be used. He starts with a criticism of the misuse of intellect by the educators of his day, and then moves on to cover the proper use of intellect in all our modern affairs. Most insightful was his admonition to understand how truly dangerous ideas can be! Finally, he even applies intellect to the romantic side of mental life, including affairs of the heart. Ideas, intellect, intellectual, ideologue--don't be confused about what these mean. Read it...it will change how you think!
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