Stringfellow Barr
Encyclopedia
Stringfellow Barr was an historian
, author
, and former president of St. John's College
in Annapolis
, Maryland
, where he, together with Scott Buchanan
, instituted the Great Books
curriculum.
Barr was the editor of Virginia Quarterly Review from 1931-1937. He established and was president of the Foundation for World Government from 1948 to 1958. In the 1950s he taught classics at Rutgers College in Newark
, New Jersey
. Two of his books, The Will of Zeus and The Mask of Jove deal with the Greeks and Romans, respectively. His nickname was "Winkie" .
In a 1951 New York Post
column, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
mocked Barr as belonging to the "solve-the-Russian-problem-by-giving-them-money school," and said, of him and two others, "None of these gentlemen is a Communist, but none of them objects very much to Communism. They are the Typhoid Marys of the left, bearing the germs of the infection even if not suffering obviously from the disease."
In 1958, Barr said (ironically):
In 1959, Barr was one of a number of signatories to a petition asking the U. S. Congress to abolish the House Committee on Unamerican Activities. Other notable signatories included Eleanor Roosevelt
and Reinhold Niebuhr
.
Barr wrote The Kitchen Garden Book (New York: Viking Press, 1956) with Stella Standard. The Kitchen Garden is a manual on growing and cooking common vegetables.
Barr's writings have served as an inspiration to generations of AP Modern European history students, most notably his writings on "The City of God" and "The City of God is Breached." Amen.
New York Times
reviewer Edmund Fuller
called his 1958 novel, Purely Academic, "bitterly hilarious," "sadistically satirical," and "funny and appalling."
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, and former president of St. John's College
St. John's College, U.S.
St. John's College is a liberal arts college with two U.S. campuses: one in Annapolis, Maryland and one in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Founded in 1696 as a preparatory school, King William's School, the school received a collegiate charter in 1784, making it one of the oldest institutions of higher...
in Annapolis
Annapolis, Maryland
Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. It had a population of 38,394 at the 2010 census and is situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east of Washington, D.C. Annapolis is...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, where he, together with Scott Buchanan
Scott Buchanan
Scott Milross Buchanan was an American philosopher, educator, and foundation consultant. He is best known as the founder of the Great Books program at St...
, instituted the Great Books
Great Books
Great Books refers primarily to a group of books that tradition, and various institutions and authorities, have regarded as constituting or best expressing the foundations of Western culture ; derivatively the term also refers to a curriculum or method of education based around a list of such books...
curriculum.
Barr was the editor of Virginia Quarterly Review from 1931-1937. He established and was president of the Foundation for World Government from 1948 to 1958. In the 1950s he taught classics at Rutgers College in Newark
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. Two of his books, The Will of Zeus and The Mask of Jove deal with the Greeks and Romans, respectively. His nickname was "Winkie" .
In a 1951 New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
column, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Jr. was an American historian and social critic whose work explored the American liberalism of political leaders including Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Robert F. Kennedy. A Pulitzer Prize winner, Schlesinger served as special assistant and "court historian"...
mocked Barr as belonging to the "solve-the-Russian-problem-by-giving-them-money school," and said, of him and two others, "None of these gentlemen is a Communist, but none of them objects very much to Communism. They are the Typhoid Marys of the left, bearing the germs of the infection even if not suffering obviously from the disease."
In 1958, Barr said (ironically):
- Many observers here and abroad note a kind of higher illiteracy in our college graduates. But we like it that way. In our cars we like horsepower; in our studies we like slow-motion and low-gear. In education the intellectually second-rate does not shock us. To insist on the first-rate would be arrogant. Anyhow, if we are so second-rate, how come we are the richest nation in recorded history and the fattest people on earth?
In 1959, Barr was one of a number of signatories to a petition asking the U. S. Congress to abolish the House Committee on Unamerican Activities. Other notable signatories included Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...
and Reinhold Niebuhr
Reinhold Niebuhr
Karl Paul Reinhold Niebuhr was an American theologian and commentator on public affairs. Starting as a leftist minister in the 1920s indebted to theological liberalism, he shifted to the new Neo-Orthodox theology in the 1930s, explaining how the sin of pride created evil in the world...
.
Barr wrote The Kitchen Garden Book (New York: Viking Press, 1956) with Stella Standard. The Kitchen Garden is a manual on growing and cooking common vegetables.
Barr's writings have served as an inspiration to generations of AP Modern European history students, most notably his writings on "The City of God" and "The City of God is Breached." Amen.
New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
reviewer Edmund Fuller
Edmund Fuller
Edmund Fuller was a historian, literary critic, and master at Kent School. He was also involved in the some of the 1950s and 1960s science and religion scholarship, bringing him into contact with William G. Pollard...
called his 1958 novel, Purely Academic, "bitterly hilarious," "sadistically satirical," and "funny and appalling."
See also
- Liberal Arts, Inc.Liberal Arts, Inc.Liberal Arts, Inc. was the name of an unsuccessful corporation founded in late 1946, which intended to create a Great Books-based liberal arts college in Stockbridge, Massachusetts...