Adopted Cheerleader

GOD'S COUNTRY AND MINE (344 pp.)--Jacques Barzun--Atlantic-Little, Brown ($5).

When a certified intellectual leads a long cheer for the U.S.--and moreover invites the jeers of his fellows by calling his book God's Country and Mine--it amounts to a conscious act of courage. French-born Jacques Barzun, 46, professor of history at Columbia University, has some reservations about his adopted country. The subtitle of his book is "A Declaration of Love Spiced with a Few Harsh Words." But even after his grudging left hand has taken away some of what his generous right has dished out. God's Country still comes as a welcome antidote to the headshaking, finger-shaking school of culture critics.

Historian Barzun has a lively mind, many interests. He has written highly praised books on such widely different subjects as Darwin, Marx, Wagner, Teacher in America, Berlioz and the Romantic Century. He has, moreover, the advantages of common sense and a chatty style.

It is part of Author Barzun's common sense that he recognizes U.S. business and businessmen as civilizing factors in a democratic economy. And he is bold enough to say bluntly: "To this day, a European nobleman or shopkeeper will stoop to doing things for money which an American would starve rather than do." U.S table manners he declares to be the best in the world, baseball the greatest national game, and the U.S. political system the greatest guarantee of democracy.

Barzun's dislikes range from the standardization of U.S. life to the hero worship of scientists. He thinks the post-office service is terrible and Hollywood movies an abomination. He cannot abide quiz programs, and he would like to see oldfashioned, full-length hand brakes returned to cars. His harshest words are reserved for New York City as a place to live and work. He hates its noise and dirt; he condemns its schools, its houses, its transportation. In fact, says Author Barzun, "we would settle for Hell as our next stopping place: living conditions could be no worse there, and the climate would be better for our sinuses." But give away New York, and there's still some 3,000,000 sq. mi. of God's country left.

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