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| the decline of the west oswald spengler: The Decline of the West Oswald Spengler, Arthur Helps, Charles Francis Atkinson, 1991 Spengler's work describes how we have entered into a centuries-long world-historical phase comparable to late antiquity, and his controversial ideas spark debate over the meaning of historiography. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: Form and actuality Oswald Spengler, 1926 |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: The Decline of the West...: Form and actuality Oswald Spengler, Charles Francis Atkinson, 1926 Contains Spengler's well-known work on the history of and the rise and fall of various civilizations. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: The Decline of the West Oswald Spengler, 1962 Corrigenda to volume I (2 leaves) laid in. [v. 1] Form and actuality.--v. 2. Perspectives of world-history. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: The Decline of the West Oswald Spengler, 1962 This abridgment of Spengler's great classic, prepared by the German scholar Helmut Werner with the blessing of the Spengler estate, consists of selections from the original (the complete, authorized English translation by Charles Francis Atkinson), linked by explanatory passages which have been translated by Arthur Helps. -- from dust jacket. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: The Decline of the West, Two Volumes in One Oswald Spengler, 2020-12-09 The Decline of the West by German historian Oswald Spengler, originally published in German as Der Untergang des Abendlandes (Vols. I and II in resp. 1918 and 1922), became an instant success in Germany after its defeat in World War I. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: Prophet of Decline John Farrenkopf, 2001-06-01 Oswald Spengler (1880--1936) is best known for The Decline of the West, in which he propounded his pathbreaking philosophy of world history and penetrating diagnosis of the crisis of modernity. This monumental work launched a seminal attack on the idea of progress and supplanted the outmoded Eurocentric understanding of history. His provocative pessimism seems to be confirmed in retrospect by the twentieth-century horrors of economic depression, totalitarianism, genocide, the dawn of the nuclear age, and the emerging global environmental crisis. In Prophet of Decline, John Farrenkopf takes advantage of the historical perspective the end of the millennium provides to reassess this visionary thinker and his challenging ideas on world history and politics and modern civilization. Farrenkopf's assessment ranges widely, placing Spengler's philosophy in its intellectual historical context and covering Spengler's ideas on democracy, capitalism, science and technology, cities, Western art, social change, and human exploitation of the environment. He also illuminates the implications of Spengler's thought for contemplating from a fresh perspective the future of the United States, the leading power of the West. Prophet of Decline is highly relevant today as many take the opportunity at the turn of the century to ponder again the direction in which humankind and our global community are moving and approach with concern the uncertain future amid globalization, hypercomplexity, and accelerating change. An interdisciplinary book about an interdisciplinary thinker, it is a substantial contribution to the literature of historical philosophy, political science, international relations, and German studies. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: The decline of the West Oswald Spengler, 2024-06-12 Since 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. 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. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: Decline of the West, Volume I Oswald Spengler, 2013-08 The Decline of the West Volume I: Form and Actuality By Oswald Spengler Contents I-Introduction II-The Meaning of Numbers III-The Problem of World-history--Physiognomic and Systematic IV-The Problem of World-history--The Destiny-idea and the Causality-principle V-Makrokosmos--The Symbolism of the World-picture and the Problem of Space VI-Makrokosmos--Apollinian, Faustian, and Magian Soul VII-Music and Plastic--The Arts of Form VIII-Music and Plastic--Act and Portrait IX-Soul-image and Life-feeling--On the Form of the Soul X-Soul-image and Life-feeling--Buddhism, Stoicism, and Socialism XI-Faustian and Apollinian Nature-Knowledge Introduction In this book is attempted for the first time the venture of predetermining history, of following the still untravelled stages in the destiny of a Culture, and specifically of the only Culture of our time and on our planet which is actually in the phase of fulfilment--the West-European-American. Hitherto the possibility of solving a problem so far-reaching has evidently never been envisaged, and even if it had been so, the means of dealing with it were either altogether unsuspected or, at best, inadequately used. Is there a logic of history? Is there, beyond all the casual and incalculable elements of the separate events, something that we may call a metaphysical structure of historic humanity, something that is essentially independent of the outward forms--social, spiritual and political--which we see so clearly? Are not these actualities indeed secondary or derived from that something? Does world-history present to the seeing eye certain grand traits, again and again, with sufficient constancy to justify certain conclusions? And if so, what are the limits to which reasoning from such premisses may be pushed? Is it possible to find in life itself--for human history is the sum of mighty life-courses which already have had to be endowed with ego and personality, in customary thought and expression, by predicating entities of a higher order like the Classical or the Chinese Culture, Modern Civilization--a series of stages which must be traversed, and traversed moreover in an ordered and obligatory sequence? For everything organic the notions of birth, death, youth, age, lifetime are fundamentals--may not these notions, in this sphere also, possess a rigorous meaning which no one has as yet extracted? In short, is all history founded upon general biographic archetypes? The decline of the West, which at first sight may appear, like the corresponding decline of the Classical Culture, a phenomenon limited in time and space, we now perceive to be a philosophical problem that, when comprehended... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Windham Press is committed to bringing the lost cultural heritage of ages past into the 21st century through high-quality reproductions of original, classic printed works at affordable prices. This book has been carefully crafted to utilize the original images of antique books rather than error-prone OCR text. This also preserves the work of the original typesetters of these classics, unknown craftsmen who laid out the text, often by hand, of each and every page you will read. Their subtle art involving judgment and interaction with the text is in many ways superior and more human than the mechanical methods utilized today, and gave each book a unique, hand-crafted feel in its text that connected the reader organically to the art of bindery and book-making. We think these benefits are worth the occasional imperfection resulting from the age of these books at the time of scanning, and their vintage feel provides a connection to the past that goes beyond the mere words of the text. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: Oswald Spengler H. Stuart Hughes, 1991-01-01 Since its publication in 1918, Oswald Spengler's The Decline of the West has been the object of academic controversy and opprobrium. In their efforts to dispose of it, scholars have resorted to a variety of tactics: bitter invective, icy scorn, urbane mockery, or simply pretending that the book is not there. Yet generations of readers have refused to be warned off, finding in Spengler a prophetic voice and a source of profound intellectual excitement. H. Stuart Hughes's Oswald Spengler offers a judicious and objective reading of Spengler's works that admirably fills the gap between hypercritical invective and naïve enthusiasm. This pioneering volume makes clear why Spengler's pessimistic reading of the fate of European civilization continues to resonate with contemporary anxieties. Despite the author's self-imposed intellectual and social isolation, Spengler's work was as Hughes demonstrates, a part of the enormous effort of intellectual reevaluation that has characterized the early twentieth century. Viewing Spengler in the broadest possible perspective, the author places his thought in its cultural relationship to that of such predecessors as Giambattista Vico, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Nikolai Danilevsky and contemporaries including Benedetto Croce, Henri Bergson, and Vilfredo Pareto. A chapter of Hughes's book is devoted to Spengler's influence on later cyclical thinkers such as Arnold Toynbee and Pitirim Sorokin. Another chapter clarifies the essentially antagonistic relationship between his thought and Nazi ideology. Throughout, Hughes is carefully attuned to the complex and often bewildering shifts of Spengler's ideas and manner, providing a unified picture of the sober historian; the lofty seer; the cool, detached observer; and the impassioned participant. In his introduction to this new edition, Hughes comments on the timeliness of Spengler's message with respect to technology and environmental issues and draws some unexpected and fascinating parallels between Spengler's thought and that of Ludwig Wittgenstein. Oswald Spengler offers an illuminating view of the achievements and limitations of one of the most influential and representative figures of the twentieth century. It will be of concern to intellectual historians, philosophers, political scientists, and sociologists. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: Routledge Revivals: Man and Technics (1932) Oswald Spengler, 2016-11-10 First published in 1932, this book, based on an address delivered in 1931, presents a concise and lucid summary of the philosophy of the author of The Decline of the West, Oswald Spengler. It was his conviction that the technical age — the culture of the machine age — which man had created in virtue of his unique capacity for individual as well as racial technique, had already reached its peak, and that the future held only catastrophe. He argued it lacked progressive cultural life and instead was dominated by a lust for power and possession. The triumph of the machine led to mass regimentation rather than fewer workers and less work — spelling the doom of Western civilization. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: Oswald Spengler and the Politics of Decline Ben Lewis, 2022-07-08 Oswald Spengler was one of the most important thinkers of the Weimar Republic, but very little has been published on his politics, philosophy and life, especially in the English-language.Oswald Spengler and the Politics of Decline transforms the pre-existing picture of Spengler by demonstrating how Spengler’s radical opposition to liberal democracy was an unwavering facet of his thought from 1918 onwards. It adopts a completely novel approach by placing a new emphasis on his political activities and writings, and is unique in explaining the interplay between Spengler’s meta-historical considerations on world history and the practical demands of Realpolitik throughout the complex discourse of German national renewal. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: Decline of the West, Volume I Oswald Spengler, 2020-12-09 ...the World-War was no longer a momentary constellation of casual facts due to national sentiments, personal influences, or economic tendencies, ...but the type of a historical change of phase occurring within a great historical organism of definable compass at the point preordained for it hundreds of years ago. --Oswald Spengler, Decline of the West Vol. I, 1914 The Decline of the West, Volume I: Form and Actuality, by German historian Oswald Spengler, originally published in German as Der Untergang des Abendlandes (Vol. I in 1918), became an instant success in Germany after its defeat in World War I. Spengler's description of the end of the Western world and the implication that Germany was part of this larger historical process resonated with the German readers. He described great cultures following a cycle from inception to expansion followed by death. By understanding this cycle, one could reconstruct the past and predict the future. He specifically predicted that in the final stage of Western civilization, in the 20th century, Caesarism, a new and overpowering leadership would arise, replacing individualism, liberalism and democracy. Even though this book was criticized by scholars, it became a bestseller in the 1920s and laid the foundation for the social cycle theory, which states that stages of history generally repeat themselves in cycles. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: The Hour of Decision Oswald Spengler, 2022-03-04 Reprint Edition. First published in 1934, the majority of this book was developed just prior to the Nazi seizure of power, with additional material which reflects on its aftermath. It assessed the decline of European power and the crisis of Western civilization in the face of conflict between the ruling class and the lower classes, arguing that only by adherence to their inherited 'Prussianism' would Germany have the solidity to be able to combat these dangers. Despite the influence of his previous writings on key Nazi figures, his criticisms of National Socialism led to the book being banned, although not before it had been widely distributed throughout Germany. Contents: Introduction; The Political Horizon World Wars and World Powers The White World-Revolution The Colored World-Revolution; Indexution; Index |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: The Decline of the West Oswald Spengler, Charles Francis Atkinson, 1926 |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: Decline of the West, Volume II Oswald Spengler, 2020-12-09 ...the World-War was no longer a momentary constellation of casual facts due to national sentiments, personal influences, or economic tendencies, ...but the type of a historical change of phase occurring within a great historical organism of definable compass at the point preordained for it hundreds of years ago. -Oswald Spengler, Decline of the West Vol. I, 1914 The Decline of the West, Volume II: Perspectives of World-History by German historian Oswald Spengler, originally published in German as Der Untergang des Abendlandes (Vol. II in 1922), became an instant success in Germany after its defeat in World War I. Spengler's description of the end of the Western world and the implication that Germany was part of this larger historical process resonated with the German readers. He described great cultures following a cycle from inception to expansion followed by death. By understanding this cycle, one could reconstruct the past and predict the future. He specifically predicted that in the final stage of Western civilization, in the 20th century, Caesarism, a new and overpowering leadership would arise, replacing individualism, liberalism and democracy. Even though this book was criticized by scholars, it became a bestseller in the 1920s and laid the foundation for the social cycle theory, which states that stages of history generally repeat themselves in cycles. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: Selected Essays, 1934-1943 Simone Weil, 2015-12-22 Introducing the Selected Works of Simone Weil |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: Forbidden Music Michael Haas, 2013-04-15 DIV With National Socialism's arrival in Germany in 1933, Jews dominated music more than virtually any other sector, making it the most important cultural front in the Nazi fight for German identity. This groundbreaking book looks at the Jewish composers and musicians banned by the Third Reich and the consequences for music throughout the rest of the twentieth century. Because Jewish musicians and composers were, by 1933, the principal conveyors of Germany’s historic traditions and the ideals of German culture, the isolation, exile and persecution of Jewish musicians by the Nazis became an act of musical self-mutilation. Michael Haas looks at the actual contribution of Jewish composers in Germany and Austria before 1933, at their increasingly precarious position in Nazi Europe, their forced emigration before and during the war, their ambivalent relationships with their countries of refuge, such as Britain and the United States and their contributions within the radically changed post-war music environment. /div |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: The Decline of the West Oswald Spengler, Charles Francis Atkinson, 1945-01-01 The German historian considers all forms and movements of human affairs as he predicts the inevitable eclipse of Western civilization. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: The Decline of the West Volume 2 Oswald Spengler, 2015-11-07 This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: Biohistory Jim Penman, 2015 Biohistory is a revolutionary new theory that explores the biological and behavioural underpinnings of social change, including the rise and fall of civilisations. Informed by significant research into the physiological basis of behaviour conducted by author Dr Jim Penman and a team of scientists at RMIT University and the Florey Institute in Melbourne, Australia, Biohistory examines how a complex interplay between culture and biology has shaped civilisations from the Roman Empire to the modern West. Penman proposes that historical changes are driven by changes in the prevailing temperament of populations, based on physiological mechanisms that adapt animal behaviour to changing food conditions. It details the history of human society by mapping the effects of these epigenetic changes on cultures, and on historical tipping points including wars and revolutions. It shows how laboratory studies can be used to explain broad social and economic changes, including the fortunes of entire civilizations. The authors shocking conclusion is that the West is in terminal and inevitable decline, and that its only hope may lie with the biological sciences. Drawing on the disciplines of history, biology, anthropology and economics, Biohistory is the first theory of society that can be tested with some rigour in the laboratory. It explains how environment, cultural values and childrearing patterns determine whether societies prosper or collapse, and how social change can be both predictedand potentially modifiedthrough biochemistry. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: Imperium Francis Parker Yockey, 2013-01-14 Written without notes in Ireland, and first published pseudonymously in 1948, Imperium is Francis Parker Yockey’s masterpiece. It is a critique of 19th-century rationalism and materialism, synthesising Oswald Spengler, Carl Schmitt, and Klaus Haushofer’s geopolitics. In particular, it rethinks the themes of Spengler’s The Decline of the West in an effort to account for the United States’ then recent involvement in World War II and for the task bequeathed to Europe’s political soldiers in the struggle to unite the Continent—heroically, rather than economically—in the realisation of the destiny implied in European High Culture. Yockey’s radical attack on liberal thought, especially that embodied by Americanism (distinct from America or Americans), condemned his work to obscurity, its appeal limited to the post-war fascist underground. Yet, Imperium transcents both the immediate post-war situation and its initial readership: it opened pathways to a deconstruction of liberalism, and introduced the concept of cultural vitalism— the organic conceptualisation of culture, with all that attends to it. These contributions are even more relevant now than in their day, and provide us with a deeper understanding of, as well as tools to deal with, the situation in the West in current century. It is with this in mind that the present, 900-page, fully-annotated edition is offered, complete with a major foreword by Dr Kerry Bolton, Julius Evola’s review as an afterword (in a fresh new translation), a comprehensive index, a chronology of Yockey's life, and an appendix, revealing, for the first time, much previously unknown information about the author's genealogical background. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: The Decline of the West Oswald Spengler, 2021-07 The first volume of Oswald Spengler's The Decline of the West is a classic milestone in the annals of historiography. However, it is not a history book in the traditional sense of recounting events in chronological order. Instead, it tries to explain the mechanisms that make different cultures tick. While classical culture had no concept of the past or future and was only fixated on the present, Western culture is focused on both the past as memory and the future as unconquered territory. Like organisms that are born, mature and eventually die, cultures are the blossoming youth while civilizations usher in senility, decay and demise. When a culture becomes a civilization, decadence sets in and the ensuing downward spiral becomes a Faustian whirlwind of self-destruction. This is inevitable as we can see that each culture's evolution has its parallels in other periods of human history. The endgame for the West has already begun. It is in terminal decline, desperately trying to revive the dead forms and buried traditions that animated its Promethean spirit in its youthful heyday of exuberance. But in old age, it all seems preposterous, and hence in vain as the West has become tired of itself and unable to innovate in either the arts or philosophy. The West is on its way to the grave and what will see the light next must necessarily be something completely new and not just a corpse reanimated. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: History and Prophecy Klaus P. Fischer, 1977 |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: Spengler's Future John Reilly, 2023-04-28 This projection of the future into the 27th century uses a simple computer program and even simpler interpretations of the Oswald Spengler's Decline of the West and Arnold Toynbee's Study of History. No, this is not a serious exercise, but it does suggest what the future would look like if the modern age really is analogous to the Hellenistic Age. Important years include 2080, 2309, and 2603. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: The Decline of the West Oswald Spengler, 1926 |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: The Decline of the West Oswald Spengler, 2021-07 In the second and more controversial, albeit optimistic, volume of The Decline of the West, Oswald Spengler deals with the world historical perspectives of his comparative cultural morphology. The periodical calm surrounding the constant and eternally recurring movements, described in the first volume, is over. Spengler develops his theory of Caesarism - a tendency towards dictatorship peculiar to mass democracy. According to Spengler, today we live in the decadent stage of civilization. Previously, the people of culture used money for buying and selling while their main thoughts and occupations lay elsewhere. The people of civilization, however, exclusively think in terms of money and nothing else. That is why our period is also marked by rapacious oligarchs, cunning stock market manipulation, a flourishing art trade and boundless corruption. Only the return of the eternal values of blood and race, through the coming of the Caesars, can destroy the tyranny of the financial mind. Thus Caesarism will bring the victory of strength politics over capital, breaking the pecuniary power and promoting national welfare. The scene is set for the final battle between the forces of plutocracy and chaos and the political will and order of the Caesars. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: The Modern Cultural Myth of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Jonathan Theodore, 2016-08-13 This book investigates the ‘decline and fall’ of Rome as perceived and imagined in aspects of British and American culture and thought from the late nineteenth through the early twenty-first centuries. It explores the ways in which writers, filmmakers and the media have conceptualized this process and the parallels they have drawn, deliberately or unconsciously, to their contemporary world. Jonathan Theodore argues that the decline and fall of Rome is no straightforward historical fact, but a ‘myth’ in terms coined by Claude Lévi-Strauss, meaning not a ‘falsehood’ but a complex social and ideological construct. Instead, it represents the fears of European and American thinkers as they confront the perceived instability and pitfalls of the civilization to which they belonged. The material gathered in this book illustrates the value of this idea as a spatiotemporal concept, rather than a historical event – a narrative with its own unique moral purpose. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: The Decline and Rise of Democracy David Stasavage, 2020-06-02 One of the most important books on political regimes written in a generation.—Steven Levitsky, New York Times–bestselling author of How Democracies Die A new understanding of how and why early democracy took hold, how modern democracy evolved, and what this history teaches us about the future Historical accounts of democracy’s rise tend to focus on ancient Greece and pre-Renaissance Europe. The Decline and Rise of Democracy draws from global evidence to show that the story is much richer—democratic practices were present in many places, at many other times, from the Americas before European conquest, to ancient Mesopotamia, to precolonial Africa. Delving into the prevalence of early democracy throughout the world, David Stasavage makes the case that understanding how and where these democracies flourished—and when and why they declined—can provide crucial information not just about the history of governance, but also about the ways modern democracies work and where they could manifest in the future. Drawing from examples spanning several millennia, Stasavage first considers why states developed either democratic or autocratic styles of governance and argues that early democracy tended to develop in small places with a weak state and, counterintuitively, simple technologies. When central state institutions (such as a tax bureaucracy) were absent—as in medieval Europe—rulers needed consent from their populace to govern. When central institutions were strong—as in China or the Middle East—consent was less necessary and autocracy more likely. He then explores the transition from early to modern democracy, which first took shape in England and then the United States, illustrating that modern democracy arose as an effort to combine popular control with a strong state over a large territory. Democracy has been an experiment that has unfolded over time and across the world—and its transformation is ongoing. Amidst rising democratic anxieties, The Decline and Rise of Democracy widens the historical lens on the growth of political institutions and offers surprising lessons for all who care about governance. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: H.P. Lovecraft S. T. Joshi, 1990 In Part I, the author deals with four principal facets of Lovecraft's philosophy: metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, and politics. In Part II, he studies those same facets as applied to the fiction. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: Field Notes from a Pandemic Ethan Lou, 2020-09-29 A CBC Best Canadian Nonfiction Book of 2020 In a book equal parts travelogue and pandemic guide, the journalist Ethan Lou examines the societal effects of COVID-19 and takes us on a mesmerizing journey around a world that will never be the same. Visiting Beijing in January 2020 to see his dying grandfather, the Canadian journalist Ethan Lou unknowingly walks into a state under siege. In his journey out of China and—unwittingly—into other hot zones in Asia and Europe, he finds himself witnessing the very earliest stages of a virus that will forever change the world as we know it. Lou argues that the coronavirus outbreak will have a far greater impact than SARS, for example, simply because China is now many more times integrated with the increasingly interconnected world. Over decades, globalization has crafted a world painfully sensitive and susceptible to shocks such as this pandemic. A crisis like it has thus been long overdue—and we have yet to see it unfold fully. In our integrated world, events that may previously be isolated now ripple farther and wider and in ways we do not expect and cannot foresee. We have not seen the worst, and if and when we outlast this pandemic, nothing will ever be the same. Decisions now—or indecisions—will shape and define the world for decades. These ideas are fleshed out through the virus's spawning and how it spread, the unprecedented measures to contain it and an examination of past pandemics and other crises and how they shaped the world--and an argument for why this one's different. Lou shows how drastically the virus has transformed the world and charts the greater and more radical shifts to come. His ideas and arguments are framed around his unintentionally tumultuous journey around the world, whose path the virus seemed to follow until he landed safely in quarantine in a small town in Germany, where he was able to take stock and start telling his story. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: The Purpose of the Past Gordon S. Wood, 2008-03-13 An erudite scholar and an elegant writer, Gordon S. Wood has won both numerous awards and a broad readership since the 1969 publication of his widely acclaimed The Creation of the American Republic. With The Purpose of the Past, Wood has essentially created a history of American history, assessing the current state of history vis-à-vis the work of some of its most important scholars-doling out praise and scorn with equal measure. In this wise, passionate defense of history's ongoing necessity, Wood argues that we cannot make intelligent decisions about the future without understanding our past. Wood offers a master's insight into what history-at its best-can be and reflects on its evolving and essential role in our culture. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: Decline of the West, Volume II Oswald Spengler, 2013-08-02 The Decline of the West Volume II: Perspectives of World-History By Oswald Spengler Contents I-Origin and Language--The Cosmic and the Microcosm II-Origin and Language--The Group of the Higher Cultures III-Origin and Language--The Relations between the Cultures IV-Cities and Peoples--The Soul of the City V-Cities and Peoples--Peoples, Races, Tongues VI-Cities and Peoples--Primitives, Culture-Peoples, Fellaheen VII-Problems of the Arabian Culture--Historic Pseudomorphoses VIII-Problems of the Arabian Culture--The Magian Soul IX-Problems of the Arabian Culture--Pythagoras, Mohammed, Cromwell X-The State--The Problem of the Estates: Nobility and Priesthood XI-The State--State and History XII-The State--Philosophy of Politics XIII-The Form-world of Economic Life--Money XIV-The Form-world of Economic Life--The Machine Excerpt from Chapter I Regard the flowers at eventide as, one after the other, they close in the setting sun. Strange is the feeling that then presses in upon you--a feeling of enigmatic fear in the presence of this blind dreamlike earth-bound existence. The dumb forest, the silent meadows, this bush, that twig, do not stir themselves, it is the wind that plays with them. Only the little gnat is free--he dances still in the evening light, he moves whither he will. A plant is nothing on its own account. It forms a part of the landscape in which a chance made it take root. The twilight, the chill, the closing of every flower--these are not cause and effect, not danger and willed answer to danger. They are a single process of nature, which is accomplishing itself near, with, and in the plant. The individual is not free to look out for itself, will for itself, or choose for itself. An animal, on the contrary, can choose. It is emancipated from the servitude of all the rest of the world. This midget swarm that dances on and on, that solitary bird still flying through the evening, the fox approaching furtively the nest--these are little worlds of their own within another great world. An animalcule in a drop of water, too tiny to be perceived by the human eye, though it lasts but a second and has but a corner of this drop as its field--nevertheless is free and independent in the face of the universe. The giant oak, upon one of whose leaves the droplet hangs, is not. Servitude and freedom--this is in last and deepest analysis the differentia by which we distinguish vegetable and animal existence. Yet only the plant is wholly and entirely what ti is; in the being of the animal there is something dual. A vegetable is only a vegetable; an animal is a vegetable and something more besides. A herd that huddles together trembling... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Windham Press is committed to bringing the lost cultural heritage of ages past into the 21st century through high-quality reproductions of original, classic printed works at affordable prices. This book has been carefully crafted to utilize the original images of antique books rather than error-prone OCR text. This also preserves the work of the original typesetters of these classics, unknown craftsmen who laid out the text, often by hand, of each and every page you will read. Their subtle art involving judgment and interaction with the text is in many ways superior and more human than the mechanical methods utilized today, and gave each book a unique, hand-crafted feel in its text that connected the reader organically to the art of bindery and book-making. We think these benefits are worth the occasional imperfection resulting from the age of these books at the time of scanning, and their vintage feel provides a connection to the past that goes beyond the mere words of the text. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers Paul Kennedy, 2010-10-27 About national and international power in the modern or Post Renaissance period. Explains how the various powers have risen and fallen over the 5 centuries since the formation of the new monarchies in W. Europe. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: The Decline of the West Oswald Spengler, 1926 |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: The Coming Caesars Amaury De Riencourt, 2013-10-01 Few Americans see the US presidents and the presidency outside of a sentimental idealism. Amaury de Riencourt, an author of more than eight books who lectured extensively in the US in the 1950s, pulls out all the stops to reveal the essence of the U.S. Presidency in this volume. Originally published in 1957, The Coming Caesars, was well-received being featured in publications like Foreign Affairs, The New Yorker and Harper's magazine. Now, with a new Introduction, a private letter to the author from a high Pakistani official from 2002, new endorsements, additional quotes and a new typeset design; a new generation can gain a better understand what is happening in the United States than is being told them. Caesarism in the presidency is much more of a threat today than ever before. This book will show why. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: The Decline of the West? Manfred P. Fleischer, 1970 |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: The Decline of the West Oswald Spengler, 1979 |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: Prussian Socialism and Other Essays Oswald Spengler, 2018-05-07 In this collection of essays, lectures and articles, some rendered in English probably for the first time, Spengler is shown as a key figure in the so-called German Conservative Revolution, who energetically promoted his views to a wide public, with particular appeals to youth. |
| the decline of the west oswald spengler: Rise and Decline of Civilizations Salomon Wald, 2014 Rise and Decline of Civilizations: Lessons for the Jewish People is a thought experiment in which the author examines the work of 23 historians of the last 2,400 years, from Thucydides to Jared Diamond, who describe the rise and decline of nations and civilizations. None of these is a historian of Judaism. The key question of the book is whether the reasons that explain the rise, decline, and fall of other civilizations could apply to the Jews as well. The answer of the author is a qualified yes. From the work of these historians he extracts 12 drivers, or factors that explain rise and decline, from religion to natural catastrophes. Reviewing the Jewish history of more than 3,000 years against the background of these drivers opens fascinating new vistas for the general reader, and may be particularly useful to historians and politicians. |
The Decline of the West - Wikipedia
The Decline of the West (German: Der Untergang des Abendlandes; more literally, The Downfall of the Occident) is a two-volume work by Oswald Spengler.The first volume, subtitled Form …
The Decline Of The West Oswald Spengler Complete Edition
30 Dec 2020 · The Decline Of The West Oswald Spengler Complete Edition Addeddate 2020-12-30 07:18:25 Identifier the-decline-of-the-west-oswald-spengler-complete-edition Identifier-ark …
The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler | Goodreads
Oswald Spengler’s The Decline of the West was a huge international bestseller after the First World War for reasons that will become obvious, and for reasons that may be just as much so, …
'The Decline of the West' by Oswald Spengler - JSTOR
The decline, or aging, of the West is as much a part of our mental outlook today as the electron or the dinosaur, and in that sense we. are all Spenglerians. Thus T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, …
The decline of the West : Volume 1, Form and actuality by Oswald Spengler
6 Dec 2023 · Summary. "The Decline of the West: Volume 1, Form and Actuality" by Oswald Spengler is a philosophical treatise on history, likely written in the early 20th century. The work …
The Decline of the West| Project Gutenberg
Oswald Spengler. Blankenburg am Harz, December, 1922. xv ... The decline of the West, which at first sight may appear, like the corresponding decline of the Classical Culture, a …
The decline of the West : Spengler, Oswald, 1880-1936 : Free …
4 Oct 2007 · The decline of the West by Spengler, Oswald, 1880-1936. Publication date [c1918] Topics Civilization -- History Publisher London Allen & Unwin Collection ... The West declined. …
The Decline of the West - Wikisource, the free online library
5 days ago · 4146152 The Decline of the West 1932 Oswald Spengler This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929. The longest …
Oswald Spengler and the Decline of the West | Key Thinkers of …
Abstract. This chapter discusses the life and work of Oswald Spengler, whose fame is based on his The Decline of the West, a monumental historical study that endeavored to show that all …
The Decline of the West - Oswald Spengler, Arthur Helps, …
Since 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 …
The Decline of the West - Wikipedia
The Decline of the West (German: Der Untergang des Abendlandes; more literally, The Downfall of the Occident) is a two-volume work by Oswald …
The Decline Of The West Oswald Spengler Complete …
30 Dec 2020 · The Decline Of The West Oswald Spengler Complete Edition Addeddate 2020-12-30 07:18:25 Identifier the-decline-of-the-west …
The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler | Goodreads
Oswald Spengler’s The Decline of the West was a huge international bestseller after the First World War for reasons that will become obvious, …
'The Decline of the West' by Oswald Spengler - JSTOR
The decline, or aging, of the West is as much a part of our mental outlook today as the electron or the dinosaur, and in that sense we. are all …
The decline of the West : Volume 1, Form and actuality …
6 Dec 2023 · Summary. "The Decline of the West: Volume 1, Form and Actuality" by Oswald Spengler is a philosophical treatise on history, likely written in …
