Herbert J. Muller was an American historian, academic, government official and author. He was educated at Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

. He taught at Cornell, Purdue and Indiana University (1959-1980), served in the Department of State, the War Production Board, and frequently lectured abroad.

He is the author of "The Uses of the Past", a sweeping inquiry into the lessons of history, focusing on Rome & Greece, Christianity & Judaism, the Byzantine empire, the Middle Ages, and Russia & China.

Far less brilliant, original, and versatile than the Greeks, the Romans were content to borrow most of their culture from them. They gave it their own practical bent, however, translating it into terms more suitable for universal use. They were able to transmit it to the barbaric West and thereby to lay the foundations of modern Europe. Then they systematized education, bequeathing the seven liberal arts to the Middle Ages. They adapted Greek philosophy to daily needs, applying it to government and recasting it into a philosophy of life available to men without high gifts. They developed the type of cultivated gentleman—the type of Cicero

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...

, Horace

Horace

Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...

, and Pliny the Younger

Pliny the Younger

Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo , better known as Pliny the Younger, was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and educate him...

, who were less spontaneous and exciting than the Greeks but more moderate, urbane and sensible.... The practical sense of the Romans also led to some original contributions, notably their monumental architecture. While the Greeks stuck to their simple post and lintel, the Romans exploited the possibilities of the arch, the dome, and the vault to erect baths, palaces, amphitheaters, and government buildings.... Their architecture was more humanistic than the Greek in that it contributed much more to civic life. (The Uses of the Past, ch. 7.)

Herbert Muller's two sons are Richard and John. His grandfather, Otto Muller, was the younger brother of Hermann J. Muller, the father of American geneticist Hermann Joseph Muller

Hermann Joseph Muller

Hermann Joseph Muller was an American geneticist, educator, and Nobel laureate best known for his work on the physiological and genetic effects of radiation as well as his outspoken political beliefs...

Jr. Great-grandfather Nicholas Muller came to the United States from Germany in 1848 and with his brother Karl founded the Muller Art Metal Works.

Publications

• "Freedom in the Western World: From the Dark Ages to the Rise of Democracy" Harper Colophon Books, 1964.
• "The Children of Frankenstein: a Primer on Modern Technology and Human Values." Indiana University Press, 1970. ISBN 0253111757
• "Science and Criticism: The Humanistic Tradition in Contemporary Thought." Yale University Press, 1943.
• "The Loom of History." Mentor-Omega/NAL, New York, 1961
• "Religion and Freedom in the Modern World", University of Chicago Press, 1963.
• "The Uses of English," Holt, Rinehart, and Winston,
• "The Uses of the Past: Profiles of Former Societies", Oxford University Press, 1952, reissued by Textbook Publishers, 2003. ISBN 0758169140