Leonard Marsak (1924–2013) was a scholar of Modern European History, especially intellectual history.

Biography

After military service during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Marsak earned his B.S. in Literature at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

in 1948, (and studied for a semester at the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

in the Spring of 1947). He became the first Jewish graduate student in History at Cornell University and earned his M.A. in History at Cornell in 1949. While writing his dissertation under the direction of Henry Guerlac at Cornell, Marsak accepted a position as Instructor of History and the Humanities at

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous ...

in 1953. While teaching at

in 1954, Marsak was questioned before the

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, create ...

, where he respectfully declined to answer on the grounds of the 1st and 5th Amendments of the

United States Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...

. While having some trouble finding another position, Marsak finished his Ph.D. in History at

in 1957, with a dissertation on the French philosopher Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle. He was eventually hired in 1960 by the History Department at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

, where he taught for some years before being hired as an Associate Professor in the History Department at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

in 1965, where he joined Joachim Remak and C. Warren Hollister in building a strong European history program. Professor Marsak published widely on Modern European Intellectual History in books, articles, and reviews. His article “Cartesianism in Fontenelle and French Science, 1686-1752,” (published in the journal ''Isis'' in 1959) established his reputation as a scholar of the history of science. He followed this with ''Bernard de Fontenelle: The Idea of Science in the French Enlightenment'' in 1959 (a revision of his doctoral dissertation). Although he continued to publish scholarly articles and reviews, Marsak reached his widest audience with a series of edited works with major publishers over the next several years, including: ''French Philosophers: From Descartes to Sartre'' (New York: Meridian, 1961); ''The Rise of Science in Relation to Society'' (New York: Macmillan, 1964); ''The Achievement of Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle'' (New York: Johnson Reprint, 1970); ''The Enlightenment'' (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1972); and ''The Nature of Historical Inquiry'' (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1970). Marsak was a popular and reflective classroom instructor.

Personal

He and his wife Ann Marsak (a scholar in her own right, as well as an environmental activist) also collected extensively in Asian Art. Leonard Marsak retired from the

and was granted emeritus status in 1986.Obituary of Leonard Marsak by J. Sears McGee at: http://www.history.ucsb.edu/archived/news/news.php?news_id=179 Professor Marsak died on February 4, 2013. His sons are Nathan Marsak, the architectural and cultural historian, and Carl Marsak, a leading expert on the

enneagram Enneagram is a compound word derived from the Greek neoclassical stems for "nine" (''ennea'') and something "written" or "drawn" (''gramma''). Enneagram may refer to: * Enneagram (geometry), a nine-sided star polygon with various configurations ...

Selected publications

*Leonard Marsak, “Cartesianism in Fontenelle and French Science, 1686-1752,” ''Isis'' 50 (1959): 51-60. *Leonard Marsak, ''Bernard de Fontenelle: The Idea of Science in the French Enlightenment'' (Philadelphia: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 1959). *Leonard Marsak, ed., ''French Philosophers: From Descartes to Sartre'' (New York: Meridian, 1961). *Leonard Marsak, ed., ''The Rise of Science in Relation to Society'' (New York: Macmillan, 1964). *Leonard Marsak, “Science and the Public Mind: Some Early Popularizers of Science,” ''Cahiers d'historie mondiale'' 10 (1967): 512-18. *Leonard Marsak, “The Idea of Reason in Seventeenth-Century France," ''Cahiers d'Histoire Mondiale'' 11 (1969): 407-416. *Leonard Marsak, ed. and trans., ''The Achievement of Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle'' (New York: Johnson Reprint, 1970). *Leonard Marsak, ed., ''The Nature of Historical Inquiry'' (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston: 1970). *Leonard Marsak, ed., ''The Enlightenment'' (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1972).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marsak, Leonard 1924 births 2013 deaths Place of birth missing Cornell University alumni Rice University faculty University of California, Santa Barbara faculty American military personnel of World War II American expatriates in France