SOURCE: “The Writing Life: A Talk Between Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. and Jacques Barzun,” in Los Angeles Times Book Review, May 21, 2000, pp. 3-4.

In the following interview, Barzun comments on his definition of “decadence,” as elaborated in From Dawn to Decadence, and his view of current religious, geopolitical, literary, and historical trends that characterize the “boredom” and fragmentation of cultural decline.

[The following introduction was written by Mark LaFlaur.]

It is difficult now to imagine an age when a weekly newsmagazine would print a cover story on “America and the Intellectual,” illustrated with 13 commissioned photographs by Alfred Eisenstaedt. The magazine was Time, the date was June 11, 1956, and the cover illustration was of a handsome, dignified man of 48 looking toward a lighted lamp of learning, the kind seen on college rings. Although more famous men (alas, they were all men) discussed in the article could have been shown on...