Skull
Platinum Member
A truly noble work of a lifetime. The cultural history of the West for the last 500 years. The author J. Barzun died at 104 years wise, in 2012.
From Dawn to Decadence
A little from his preface:
"It takes only a look at the numbers to see that the 20th century is coming
to an end. A wider and deeper scrutiny is needed to see that in the West the
culture of the last 500 years is ending at the same time. Believing this to be
true, I have thought it the right moment to review in sequence the great
achievements and the sorry failures of our half millennium.
This undertaking has also given me a chance to describe at first hand for
any interested posterity some aspects of present decadence that may have
escaped notice, and to show how they relate to others generally acknowledged.
But the lively and positive predominate: this book is for people who
like to read about art and thought, manners, morals, and religion, and the
social setting in which these activities have been and are taking place. I have
assumed that such readers prefer discourse to be selective and critical rather
than neutral and encyclopedic. And guessing further at their preference, I
have tried to write as I might speak, with only a touch of pedantry here and
there to show that I understand modern tastes."
From Dawn to Decadence
A little from his preface:
"It takes only a look at the numbers to see that the 20th century is coming
to an end. A wider and deeper scrutiny is needed to see that in the West the
culture of the last 500 years is ending at the same time. Believing this to be
true, I have thought it the right moment to review in sequence the great
achievements and the sorry failures of our half millennium.
This undertaking has also given me a chance to describe at first hand for
any interested posterity some aspects of present decadence that may have
escaped notice, and to show how they relate to others generally acknowledged.
But the lively and positive predominate: this book is for people who
like to read about art and thought, manners, morals, and religion, and the
social setting in which these activities have been and are taking place. I have
assumed that such readers prefer discourse to be selective and critical rather
than neutral and encyclopedic. And guessing further at their preference, I
have tried to write as I might speak, with only a touch of pedantry here and
there to show that I understand modern tastes."