Laudator Temporis Acti

Bernard Lewis (1916-2018), Notes on a Century: Reflections of a Middle East Historian (New York: Penguin Books, 2012), page number unknown (chapter 7):

Heinrich von Sybel, the German historian, said a long time ago that students should arrive at the university knowing their centuries. I think that puts it well. If you say fourteenth century or seventeenth century, this should immediately evoke something in the mind of a reasonably cultivated man or woman. When you say seventeenth century, an educated person will think of baroque buildings and Vivaldi or the wars of religion.

Id.:

In this country there is a great dichotomy in that we educate a few very well from the beginning, but we educate a lot of youngsters very poorly. I think we are moving toward a kind of mandarin class which is highly educated, sophisticated, capable of high-level interaction in ways that are unintelligible to others. Then there is a mass of semiliterates whose highest aesthetic appreciation is a good commercial on television. I think that is a very dangerous development.