I've been reading a bit of Jacques Barzun lately. This lecture in his Forgotten Thinkers series by Wes Cecil is a nice summary of Barzun's work. You have to overlook Wes Cecil's weird habit of pronouncing the "s" at the end of Jacques Barzun's first name, but such pettiness aside, this is pretty compelling stuff.
The lecture is an hour long, but go bake some cookies or something while you listen, and you won't even notice the time passing. Meanwhile your intellect will be exercised even as your belly anticipates expansion.
My favorite section of the lecture is when Dr. Cecil talks about the three things that Barzun says are the enemies of the intellect. You won't be able to anticipate Barzun's list – it is so counter-intuitive – yet when he makes his argument for why these three things are enemies of the intellect, it makes so much sense. Barzun was something of a prophetic voice, if it's possible for an intellectual and academic to also be a prophet.
