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Title: From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life by Jacques Barzun ISBN: 0060175869 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: May, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $36.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.14
Rating: 4
Summary: Fine but flawed account of modern cultural development.
Comment: Historian Jacques Barzun has written a wonderful account of the development and history of modern Western culture, an account that perhaps only he could have written. 94 years old and a lifetime student of Western history (who has apparently forgotten nothing he has ever learned) Barzun is uniquely able to chronicle and comment on the cultural currents that have made the last half millenium such a singular period in history. His elegant, clever prose makes the profundity of his observations easy to read and consider. One caveat: this is a cultural history. Barzun assumes the reader's knowledge of the basic chronology of events (your Western Civ text will cover that) and uses the reader's knowledge toframe his descriptions. For example he spends five pages discussing the "savants", the scientists who accompanied Napoleon to Egypt, while virtually ignoring the Napoleonic Wars themselves. The reader should be aware of this prerequisite. Barzun more or less defines his "culture" as "the evolution of art, science, religion, philosophy and social thought" peculiar to Europe and, eventually the Americas over the last five hundred years. He describes "an endless series of opposites in religion, politics, art, morals and manners..." and "...a set of ideas and institutions not found earlier or elsewhere...a unity combined with enormous diversity...The West has been the mongrel civilization par excellence." He defines an era as "a span of 500 years or more, time enough foran evolving culture to work ut its possibilities" and ages as "distinctive spans within an era." the author begins the modern age with two developments, the Reformation and the invention of the printing press. These developments allowed thinkers to challenge the earthly omnipotence of the Roman Church, to relatively rapidly convey their thoughts to one another and to translate works into their own languages, resulting in EMANCIPATION of thought. Barzun uses small caps to underline several defining, recurrent cultural trendsduring the age. The others are INDIVIDUALISM, SELF CONSCIOUSNESS (both tied to emancipation) ANANYSIS, ABSTRACTION (often connected), SCIENTISM, REDUCTIONISM and PRIMITIVISM (a frequent reaction to excesses of the others. He proceeds in a linear narrative through his eras, (Renaissince, Classical, Romantic, Victorian and Modern). He oc- casionally pauses to examine a cultural cross section of a par- ticular city during a particular year. Although in principle this is a nice touch its application is uneven. His account of 1540 Madrid is richly descriptive of court life; he also explains how uncontrolled importation of New World silver led to rampant European inflation, resulting in Bodin's study of the relation between the value of goods and the supply of money in circulation. However his "Weimar, 1790" is uneven, with an unconnected digression on the American Revolution included. (I guess it had to go somewhere). Along the way he explodes somy mythe. Leonardo was not the consummate Renaissance Man, the intolerant Puritans were not nearly as puritannical as believed and Shakespeare's acceptance as a great playwright waxed and waned with literary fashion until the onset of "bardolatry" in the early 19th century. He describes the evolution of the Artist's place in society, the rise of nation states with powerful monarchs (opposed to kinge) and the ascendence of the bourgeoisie, first used to break the power of the nobility by Louis XIV. He explains the difference between a "tale" and a "novel", and between "speech" and "prose". He marks the early Romanticist era as the moment at which Western social thought shifted; when the betterment of Humankind's lot became feasible. Barzun frequently pauses to comment on work of some interesting thinker, often well-known (e.g.Goethe) sometimes almost forgotten (Tasso) or unexpected (Florence Nightingale). He includes "an interlude" arguing that history overlooking Robert Burton's "Anatomy" is "without excuse." Four times he pauses for a "digression on a word". He explores the ambiguous, sometimes conflicting meanings of man (as in human), genius, romantic and pragmatic, and explains how he chooses to use these words. Barzun examines the changing status of women in society. He points out that, at least among the upper classes, during the Renaissance they were the approximate equals of men and that gender relations' low point was probably the Victorian era. He traces the history of evolution from its pre-Darwinian flickers through to its current state of broad acceptance, as well as some divergent aberrations such as phrenology and the bizarre racial theories which led to the rise of National Socialism. I don't think I've encountered a better writer than Barzun at disatilling complex ideas and presenting them succinctly. In a paragraph he fully explains the Zeitgeist of the Romantic Era, in two pages he crystallizes the Pragmatic philosophy of William James. One short chapter lays out the history of the turbulent turn of the last century, which he labels "The Cubist Decade". Throughout the book his thoughts are clear, his facts well ordered and his misses insignificant (the Gateway Arch does not span the Mississippi River). Where Barzun fails however, is his analysis of our current cultural state. His clear threads of continuity suddennly disappear and we are left with an enumeration of the cultural ills of our time. He does not take the time to examine any con- tradictions inherent in our cultural trends. For example he (justifiably) decries the loss of academic standards in university curricula but never speculates that this may be an unintended consequence of the opening of higher education to the working classes (EMANCIPATION). When a less than prosperous individual is able to attend college he is entitled to expect that one benefit will be the means to raise his station in life. It's not that far a jump from this (adminable) proposition (education as means to social mobility) to the inane belief that college is just a glorified trade school. Barzun never really examines the corrent era in this way. Nevertheless the book is an exceptionally good read, profound, well written and clear. Barzun has done a service in summarizing his life's work and it's worth the effort.
Rating: 5
Summary: A fascinating journey through the past 500 years
Comment: This book begins with the Protestant Reformation in 1517, and continues to the present day. Many times histories can be very dry and difficult to read, but this 877 page book covers 500 years of Western Cultural Life in a very readable manner. The focus is on all the facets of Western culture through the centuries. This book is about 500 years of art, politics, religion, writing, philosophy, science, morals, and manners. One of the things that makes the book so interesting is that not only are historical and cultural revolutions covered, but the part that people had in important events and their effects on real people are described. The importance of individual people is greatly stressed in the book. This book shows that we all have many connections with the past. The events of each century have effected what happened in the following centuries, and in our lives today. Jacques Barzun describes our current age as being decadent; but that sense of decadence is really the end of one age and a new beginning for the future. That new beginning can see another flowering of Western culture. This book is the work of a lifetime, and I always had that awareness while reading it. There is a vast richness in the depth and range of this book that any review can only briefly describe. Reading this book is like looking back through the footprints of time, and seeing many of the places that we came from. Then there is also a vision of the path that may lay before us in the future. I recommend this excellent book to everyone.
Rating: 5
Summary: An Extremely Worthwhile Read
Comment: FROM DAWN TO DECADENCE is a book that dares to tackle one of the "biggest" subjects imaginable: The cultural history of the West over the past 500 years. Beginning with the Protestant Reformation and working his way forward, Barzun touches on nearly aspect of society as he goes along.
Barzun's thesis is that western culture has moved through various phases of ascendency, along the way allowing certain trends (such as "emancipation" to develop), and that those trends (along with the culture itself) are now pretty much played out. (This is described as a natural course of a society's evolution). He makes a compelling argument that western culture has been in a state of decline since the outbreak of World War I, and sits today in a state of limbo, waiting for the next cultural phenomenon to take place.
To support this position, Barzun takes us on an amazing tour of the last 500 years, with innumerable stopping points along the way. In the process we meet several mostly forgotten individuals who helped to shape our society, and we are present as several modern "politically-correct" assumptions are debunked. The author joyfully celebrates the importance of western culture in the world's development, never succumbing to brainless modern platitudes of "oppression" such as blaming Columbus for everything that followed (at the same time, though, he's willing to lay blame where it is legitimately due). We're also treated to an incredible bibliography, allowing us to branch out into any of the areas Barzun introduces.
Interestingly, this is not really a history book. The author assumes a general knowledge of events like the French Revolution, World War One and other epoch-making events. Rather, this is exactly like the subtitle says: A review of the elements that go to making up culture...in other words, how the events of history shaped people's lives and society's essence, rather than the events themselves.
This is not light reading (although highly readable); to really penetrate it requires slower, deliberative study and thought. I also wouldn't characterize Barzun as an "excellent writer"; his excellence is in content, not style. But the content is so consistently, magnificently interesting that one gets the feeling this book wil be consulted for a long time to come. Recommended.
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Title: The Culture We Deserve : A Critique of Disenlightenment by Jacques Barzun, Arthur Krystal ISBN: 0819562378 Publisher: Wesleyan Univ Pr Pub. Date: July, 1990 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Simple & Direct by Jacques Barzun ISBN: 0060937238 Publisher: Quill Pub. Date: 18 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning by Jacques Barzun, Morris Philipson ISBN: 0226038475 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: May, 1992 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
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Title: A Jacques Barzun Reader : Selections from His Works by Jacques Barzun ISBN: 0066210194 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 24 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The House of Intellect by Jacques Barzun ISBN: 0313200718 Publisher: A Greenwood Press Reprint Pub. Date: March, 1978 List Price(USD): $73.95 |
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