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The Decline of the West: Volume 1: Form and Actuality and Volume 2: Perspectives of World History
The Decline of the West - Volume 1 published in 1917, Volume 2 in 1922 - has exercised and challenged opinion ever since. It was a huge undertaking by Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), formerly an unpublished historian and philosopher who set out to radically reconsider history - the rise and fall of world civilisations and their cultures. His primary view was to reject the established Eurocentric paradigm (ancient/classical, Medieval - and, following the Renaissance - modern) and to take a totally new perspective. First and foremost, his intention was to offer a world overview; and on that basis to present and discuss the premise that the story of the history of man followed a fundamental pattern wherever on the globe it arose. Of particular interest to him were the characteristics of the separate and distinct cultures (established through developments in science, mathematics and the arts). The major cultures he identifies are Babylonian, Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, Mesoamerican (Mayan-Aztec), classical (Greek/Roman), Arabian and Western (European and American). Spengler offered another division - three distinct phases: Magian (societies dominated by monotheism - Persian as well as Semitic religions), Apollonian (ancient Greece and Rome) and Faustian (the ‘modern Western societies' of his time). All these civilisations can be seen to emerge and decline in seasonal form depicted in terms of spring, summer, autumn, winter. Within the context of this map comes the detail. Spengler drew on his broad reading to tell the story, to make the links, to ink in the patterns. His breadth of sources and insights of observations and (strongly defined) opinions is fascinating and often persuasive but sometimes contentious. Inevitably, for such an ambitious work, it has garnered controversy since it first appeared. Certainly for a generation it was required reading. First appearing in Germany (it was finally released in one volume in 1923 and translated into other languages) its reception was coloured by the timing. Both admired and criticised, it had its base in a Germany undergoing severe economic and psychological difficulties, only to be swept aside by the rise of Nazism. Spengler rejected the racism of Nazism, but his strong attitudes (acknowledging, unapologetically, the effect of ‘imperial' individuals on history, whether through military, political or commercial activities) were often characterised as unfailingly right-wing. Not surprisingly, The Decline of the West has been in and out of fashion in the academic world, but also in its more popular appeal. However, in the dramatically changing world of the 21st century, there are resonances which are impossible to ignore. ‘The man of action is always conscienceless,' said Goethe, one of Spengler's two main mentors (the other is Nietzsche). But Spengler is unequivocal in his conclusion - as one commentator wrote, ‘Spengler's prophecy that Western Europe would lose its world hegemony has been fulfilled. Must Western culture also go under?' Spengler has been accused of pessimism, and The Decline of the West is certainly an uncompromising book to read. But in the preface he is essentially circumspect about his purpose: ‘Is there a logic of history? Is there, beyond all the casual and incalculable elements of the separate event, something that we may call a metaphysical structure of historic humanity, something that is essentially independent of outward forms - social, spiritual and political - wh
Oswald Spengler (Author), Peter Wickham (Narrator)
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Decline of the West, The - Oswald Spengler
The Decline of the West (German: Der Untergang des Abendlandes), or The Downfall of the Occident, is a two-volume work by Oswald Spengler. The first volume, subtitled Form and Actuality, was published in the summer of 1918.The second volume, subtitled Perspectives of World History, was published in 1922.The definitive edition of both volumes was published in 1923. Spengler introduces his book as a 'Copernican overturning' involving the rejection of the Eurocentric view of history, especially the division of history into the linear 'ancient-medieval-modern' rubric.[4] According to Spengler, the meaningful units for history are not epochs but whole cultures which evolve as organisms. He recognizes at least eight high cultures: Babylonian, Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, Mesoamerican (Mayan/Aztec), Classical (Greek/Roman), Arabian, and Western or European. Cultures have a lifespan of about a thousand years of flourishing, and a thousand years of decline. The final stage of each culture is, in his word use, a 'civilization'. Spengler also presents the idea of Muslims, Jews and Christians, as well as their Persian and Semitic forebears, being 'Magian'; Mediterranean cultures of the antiquity such as Ancient Greece and Rome being 'Apollonian'; and the modern Westerners being 'Faustian'. According to Spengler, the Western world is ending and we are witnessing the last season—'winter time'—of Faustian Civilization. In Spengler's depiction, Western Man is a proud but tragic figure because, while he strives and creates, he secretly knows the actual goal will never be reached.
Oswald Spengler (Author), Multiple Narrators (Narrator)
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