Prophet of Decline
Title | Prophet of Decline PDF eBook |
Author | John Farrenkopf |
Publisher | LSU Press |
Total Pages | 332 |
Release | 2001-06-01 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 9780807127278 |
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
Title | The Decline of the West PDF eBook |
Author | Oswald Spengler |
Publisher | Oxford University Press, USA |
Total Pages | 500 |
Release | 1991 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9780195066340 |
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.
A Decline in Prophets
Title | A Decline in Prophets PDF eBook |
Author | Sulari Gentill |
Publisher | CMC Verve |
Total Pages | 384 |
Release | 2022-01-26 |
Genre | Fiction |
ISBN | 0857303600 |
Wealthy Bohemian artist Rowland Sinclair and his lively companions are sailing homewards to Australia on the RMS Aquitania. The ship embodies luxury and civilised respite from the tensions of the Depression-era; until the murders start... A passenger manifest containing suffragettes, men of God and mystics ought to provide stimulation and safety; instead, a cocktail of flawed people results in danger, death and a cloud of suspicion which envelops Rowland and his entourage - a poet, a fellow painter and a brazen sculptress. Finding himself unwittingly at the centre of a murder investigation, can Rowland put a stop to the heinous crimes before he and his friends become victims themselves? Sulari Gentill expertly weaves real events and personalities into her tension-fuelled murder mysteries which are sure to enthral lovers of deep intrigue and history.
The Idea of Decline in Western History
Title | The Idea of Decline in Western History PDF eBook |
Author | Arthur Herman |
Publisher | Simon and Schuster |
Total Pages | 538 |
Release | 1997 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 0684827913 |
Enth.: "Historical and Cultural Pessimism. Jacob Burckhardt and Friedrich Nietzsche" (S. 76-108).
The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium
Title | The Revolt of The Public and the Crisis of Authority in the New Millennium PDF eBook |
Author | Martin Gurri |
Publisher | Stripe Press |
Total Pages | 465 |
Release | 2018-12-04 |
Genre | Political Science |
ISBN | 1953953344 |
How insurgencies—enabled by digital devices and a vast information sphere—have mobilized millions of ordinary people around the world. In the words of economist and scholar Arnold Kling, Martin Gurri saw it coming. Technology has categorically reversed the information balance of power between the public and the elites who manage the great hierarchical institutions of the industrial age: government, political parties, the media. The Revolt of the Public tells the story of how insurgencies, enabled by digital devices and a vast information sphere, have mobilized millions of ordinary people around the world. Originally published in 2014, The Revolt of the Public is now available in an updated edition, which includes an extensive analysis of Donald Trump’s improbable rise to the presidency and the electoral triumphs of Brexit. The book concludes with a speculative look forward, pondering whether the current elite class can bring about a reformation of the democratic process and whether new organizing principles, adapted to a digital world, can arise out of the present political turbulence.
The Better Angels of Our Nature
Title | The Better Angels of Our Nature PDF eBook |
Author | Steven Pinker |
Publisher | Penguin Books |
Total Pages | 834 |
Release | 2012-09-25 |
Genre | Psychology |
ISBN | 0143122010 |
Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think this is the most violent age ever seen. Yet as bestselling author Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true.
Oswald Spengler
Title | Oswald Spengler PDF eBook |
Author | H. Stuart Hughes |
Publisher | Transaction Publishers |
Total Pages | 208 |
Release | 1991-01-01 |
Genre | Biography & Autobiography |
ISBN | 9781412830348 |
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.