The Decline of the WestSince its first publication in two volumes between 1918-1923, The Decline of the West has ranked as one of the most widely read and most talked about books of our time. In all its various editions, it has sold nearly 100,000 copies. A twentieth-century Cassandra, Oswald Spengler thoroughly probed the origin and "fate" of our civilization, and the result can be (and has been) read as a prophesy of the Nazi regime. His challenging views have led to harsh criticism over the years, but the knowledge and eloquence that went into his sweeping study of Western culture have kept The Decline of the West alive. As the face of Germany and Europe as a whole continues to change each day, The Decline of the West cannot be ignored. The abridgment, prepared by the German scholar Helmut Werner, with the blessing of the Spengler estate, consists of selections from the original (translated into English by Charles Francis Atkinson) linked by explanatory passages which have been put into English by Arthur Helps. H. Stuart Hughes has written a new introduction for this edition. In this engrossing and highly controversial philosophy of history, Spengler describes how we have entered into a centuries-long "world-historical" phase comparable to late antiquity. Guided by the philosophies of Goethe and Nietzsche, he rejects linear progression, and instead presents a world view based on the cyclical rise and decline of civilizations. He argues that a culture blossoms from the soil of a definable landscape and dies when it has exhausted all of its possibilities. Despite Spengler's reputation today as an extreme pessimist, The Decline of the West remains essential reading for anyone interested in the history of civilization. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - thcson - LibraryThingI'm under the impression that this book was once held in quite high esteem, but today it's hard to find anything of value in it. The author thinks he can trace and predict the course of human history by studying the history of art. That's all you need to know. Read full review
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this book is the real truth on this world as we know it today.
Contents
INTRODUCTION | 3 |
n THE MEANING OF NUMBERS | 41 |
IN THE PROBLEM OF WORLDHISTORY | 70 |
THE SYMBOLISM | 87 |
APOLLINIAN | 97 |
Arts as the symbol of the higher order 115 Apollinian | 133 |
Varieties of human portraiture 135 Hellenistic portraiture | 149 |
the end | 155 |
CITIES AND PEOPLES | 245 |
PROBLEMS OF THE ARABIAN | 268 |
PROBLEMS OF THE ARABIAN | 299 |
PROBLEMS OF THE ARABIAN | 319 |
THE PROBLEM | 354 |
XVIIISTATE AND HISTORY | 360 |
PHILOSOPHY OF POLITICS | 382 |
THE FORMWORLD OF ECONOMIC | 398 |
BUDDHISM STOICISM SOCIALISM | 176 |
Ethical Socialism | 185 |
FAUSTIAN AND APOLLINIAN NATURE | 188 |
XXITHE FORMWORLD OF ECONOMIC | 409 |
INDEX follows page | 415 |
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Common terms and phrases
actuality appear Baroque become beginning belong body called century Christianity Church cities Civilization Classical comes completely conception course Culture deep definite Destiny direction early economic effect element entirely existence experience expression extension fact Faustian feeling felt final follows force future geometry German Gothic Greek hand human idea important individual inner intellectual Italy kind language late less light limits living longer look Magian mathematic matter means merely Nature never object once organic original painting period Persian philosophy physics picture political possesses possible present principle problem pure question race reason regarded relation religion religious Roman secret sense side significance soul space Spengler spirit stands style symbol theory things thinking thought tion true truths understanding West Western whole