Customer Reviews

Civilisation: A Personal View

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If I had to chose 5 books for eternity, this would be one. I first read it as a recent college grad when it was published in the early '70's. It helped estabish my view of western civilization and art. I have scoured used book stores for copies to give to others and I am pleased it is again available. I treasure this volume and would be lost without it.

Starting with chapter 1, "The Skin of Our Teeth" (covering ground more recently trod by Thomas Cahill's HOW THE IRISH SAVED CIVILIZATION), and culminating with chapter 13's "Heroic Materialism", Clark produces a joyful, sometimes wary look at the painting, architecture, sculpture, philosophy, music, science, and even engineering that have contributed to the evolution of Western Civilization.

Clark's writing most definitely does not fall into the dry, verbally bloated academic style (which never fails to give me the heebie-jeebies), but instead, his words issue a warmth, an inviting, conversational tone, and his thoughts are timeless, which is fortunate, as CIVILISATION is just over 30 years old.

Worthwhile? Yep.

This is not really an overview of western Civilization, but, rather, a history of western art and architecture for the past 1500 years (furthermore, the first 1/2 millenium is handled in the first of 13 chapters, and the last 100 years really aren't discussed -- so the book really covers primarily the high middle ages to the late 19th century in Europe). The text is a transcript of the successful television series (which I never saw): I suspect that the book suffers (relative to the TV series) due to the lack of music. On a broad level, what the author's survey of "civilization" is most lacking is any attempt at explaining causation: why was great art found first here (e.g., Italy), then there (e.g., Netherlands and North Germany). More attention to economic (and military) matters would have made this a much stronger history book. As it is, it is an extremely enjoyable (great illustrations!) and thought-provoking cultural history survey. [I read the folio Society 1999 hardcover edition.]

This is a very civilized survey of the highlights of Western art and architecture. Lord Clark an art- historian by profession writes with skill, taste and humor. In the opening of the book he quotes Ruskin as saying that " great nations write their autobigraphies in three manuscripts, the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood without reading the two others, but of the three the only trustworthy one is the last" This is the line that Lord Clark adopts as he focuses primarily on the art works and the architecture. But his survey is at all points learned insightful cultured and a pleasure to read.

Kenneth Clark's book pales just a bit next to the TV (now video) series by the same name, just because you can't hear him expound his exquisitely cultured views in that elegant, thatchy-tweedy-frightfully-awfully-wonderful voice of his. Plus of course there's no sound track. But no matter--this book is a guided tour through the inner workings of the West's creative impulse itself. Also, it's a damned fine art travelogue. It's frightening to think how all the achievements traced in this book--the very glory of Western civilization--have been jettisoned by the universities nowadays, the better to worship at the altar of the Left's holy trinity: race, sex, and class. Well, their God is too small, and thirty pages into _Civilisation_ the reader will be grateful for the corrective he now holds.

Lord Kenneth Clark (1903-1983), English art historian and past director of the British National Gallery in London (1934-1945) reacted to the ominous signs of world cultural and political revolution which characterized the 1960's by writing scripts for, narrating, and personally appearing in a 13 hour British Broadcasting Corporation produced-for-television documentary series titled simply CIVILISATION (1969). The television documentary series he created was actually intended to discourage revolutionary thought and activity (Lord Clark's final pontifical message delivered at the very end of the final episode of the series), and thus could and should be regarded as a predictable bit of [...] delivered by one of the then high priests of the British Establishment defending property and privilege of the monied classes.

Even so, a curious and wonderful side effect resulted from Clark's effort.

Clark's very effective tactic in lending grave authority to his final anti-revolution message was to summarize in considerable detail great efforts of civilized peoples over roughly 1500 years of European history as reflected and demonstrated by works of great art and architecture. He guides us from the "dark" part of the middle ages to the present (1960's) and offers his considerable expertise and familiarity with high points of "civilisation" reflected by great works of art, and in so doing creates himself, in a low key, charming British way, as an authority on his overall subject.

When his final message discouraging revolutionary thought and activity is delivered gravely during the last 10 minutes of the 13 hour documentary film effort, the implicit point is that all the great creators of art seen in the previous 13 hours would agree with Kenneth Clark's anti-revolutionary sentiments.

Well, one can't blame monied, propertied, and privileged people for moving to protect their enviable situations through efforts like Kenneth Clark's CIVILISATION (1969). The revolutionary fervor of the times he was worried about, now almost half a century past, died down, and the forces he represented so skillfully in CIVILISATION certainly got and held the "upper hand" in the decades which followed the 60's. The smashing of the revolutionary spirit of the 1960's no doubt owes a great deal to the likes of Kenneth Clark and films/books like CIVILISATION (1969). New York City historian Rick Perlstein recently wrote a book about how the widespread liberal consensus of the 1960's was reversed by the efforts of Barry Goldwater and his supporters. The fact is that many efforts were made to change the trends of those times, and arguably, those efforts succeeded.

All of this said, Lord Kenneth Clark created the very best and most digestable tour of the truly great works of European art and architecture ever produced before or since. Regardless of one's opinion of his political and social motives, the 12 hours and 50 minutes which came BEFORE his final 10 minute sermon opposing the 60's revolution constitute a masterful and compelling summary of truly great fine art and architecture. Any person who desires the best possible education regarding the subject of art and culture in Europe at its best during the past 1000+ years owes it to him or herself to see the entire 13 hour video series titled CIVLISATION (1969) and also to obtain and re-read often the "print version" of that work.

Since Kenneth Clark produced CIVILISATION (1969) almost half a century ago, the cultural world has changed considerably for the worse. Educational institutions and media neither aspire to nor are successful at creating cultured people. Cultured conversation or familiarity seem to exist almost nowhere. Classic culture is no longer the result of higher education, nor, it seems safe though sad to say, of any education presently available at all, anywhere. The world, culturally, has returned to the Dark Ages, as it does from time to time.

Kenneth Clark's work, CIVILSATION (1969), is a gleaming precious gem amidst the present darkness. It's out of print and hard to find, but it's not gone completely. Those who know of its existence, and who know where valuable cultural works like CIVLISATION (1969) can still be gotten needn't be gloomy, nor need they worry about the present dark times.

Mr. Clark's book and video series are really outstanding! He provides a very good overview of Western art and culture from the Dark Ages to the 20th century, with beautiful images and some profound statements about civilization and human nature in general, which can be applied to Western and Non-Western societies. Mr. Clark's humane ideas shine through. The book and videos are worthwhile for anyone, from children to adults, and those in academics could learn some things from it too. The book by itself is worthwhile, but if you have a chance, the videos are especially rewarding with their musical selections and photography.

This is the best book I have read on the subject of the art and culture, it should be recommended to anyone interested in history of art, music, architecture, and sociology. The Author's humanistic approach could be very useful in our busy and competitious time. It reminds us once again that human problems do not change in time, it is our approach toward them that defines us as personalities and as societies. "The Civilization" shows that human race has huge ancestry, which must not be forgotten, but used for good.

This is one of those books which you would expect to be about something, but when you open it you find it's really about something else. You would expect a book titled "Civilisation" to be about, well...civilisation. Instead, it's about art in its various forms, and how they reflect the civilisation that they accompany. Further, it has nothing to do with art outside Western Europe: Poland, the Balkans, Scandinavia, and Russia are all ignored, to say nothing of Africa, the Middle East, Asia, or Latin America. The author excuses it by saying that while he admires art from there, he knows little about it, and this book is about what he knows: art, primarily painting, from ancient Greece and Rome, Italy, France, and Britain, with a bit from the U.S.A. and Spain, up to the mid-18th Century.

The book is really the transcript of a televised series of the same title, narrated by the author. This gives it a conversational style that's readable and interesting, and which pulls the book along quite nicely. It's accompanied by almost 300 illustrations, in my edition, many in color. It's a beautiful book, and very interesting, but rather limited by the subject and the medium of the published book made from TV. These (I've read one other, by J.F.C. Fuller, on leaders in World War II) have strange limitations, because they tend to be very personal, from the point of view of the narrator. So I enjoyed this book, but with rather large limitations: the author's opinions are really what the book is about, and if you aren't interested in those, you're wasting your time.

Since the seller was in Califorina and my son is in California, I selected this book seller to get his birthday gift to him on time: a few days after I purchased it.

Unfortunately, the book was not mailed for at least 5 days after I purchased it, so it arrived at my son's late (after his birthday).

Duane J. Matthiesen
Lexington, Massachusetts