Customer Reviews

The Decline of the West

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Let us start by looking at Spengler's faults. First, he divided history into a few great civilizations none of which could be understood by someone who did not live in that civilization. This statement is a logical contradiction, since Spengler, by his own definition, could not know what someone in another civilization was thinking.

Second, he believed that civilizations not nations existed. But when did anyone fight for a civilization? What civilization has a capital city? a palace? a language? Nations die, because they exist. Western civilization will not die, because it does not really exist.

Spengler's greatest accomplishment was to show that history can be teleological--moving toward an end unlike other writers who see events as entelechical--ends in themselves.

He was also more specific in his predictions than was the Bible or Nostradamus. He foresaw the rise of private armies (Mussolini, Hitler, Mao). He said that by the middle of the twentieth century, the most powerful people in the world would be international bankers who would exercise control behind the scenes while preaching international liberalism (David Rockefeller). And he predicted the fall of communism in the Soviet Union by the end of the twentieth century and a return there to Christian fundamentalism. He was right except, based on demographic trends, the fundamentalism may, by mid-twenty-first century, be Muslim not Christian.

To benefit from Spengler, read the unabridged edition, take notes, and, after you finish, put your notes aside for a year before studying them.

Bought this as a gift. Got confused because some editions are in two volumes. This is a one volume edition, but has the entire text. Recipient was happy.