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The Hour of Decision: Germany and World-Historical Evolution

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The previous reviewer (who seems to think that Spengler is *advocating* when he is, in fact, *analyzing*) offers a complete distortion of this work. This is a penetrating follow-up to The Decline of the West, a book that takes the theories that Spengler outlined in abstract in his two-volume magnum opus, and applies them to the specific circumstances of his day.

As for the accusation of racism, Spengler means something completely different by the term ''race'' than what we now describe as ''racist'' thinking. As Spengler himself writes in this book:

''[S]peaking of race, it is not intended in the sense in which it is the fashion among anti-Semites in Europe and America to use it today: Darwinistically, materially. Race purity is a grotesque word in view of the fact that for centuries all stocks and species have been mixed, and the warlike -- that is, healthy -- generations with a future before them have from time immemorial always welcomed a stranger into the family if he had 'race,' to whatever race it was he belonged. Those who talk too much about race no longer have it in them.'' (p.219)

By ''race,'' Spengler means something much more akin to ''character,'' as well as cultural and national vitality. As he indicates in the above passage, he has no use for the more common type of racist thought, which he ridicules as mere ''zoology'' (p.225)

But moving beyond that specific issue, this work is a profound examination of the economic and spiritual crisis that faced Western culture in the 1930s, and continues to face it today.

German historian and philosopher Oswald Spengler (1880-1936) is most remembered today for his magnum opus, The Decline of the West. But, much less known is his sequel, The Hour of Decision: Germany and World-Historical Evolution. In this fascinating book, Spengler looks at the decline of the West in the light of the rise of Communism and Fascism. Interestingly, Spengler sees Capitalism, Communism and even Fascism as part of the same trend towards a vulgar leveling of society.

After examining the state of the West, in light of World War I, he then turns to look at the rest of the world. This part is probably at the root of the accusations that the book is racist. Using an old way of thinking that has since been dropped, but was then quite current, Spengler divides the world into the "white world" and the "colored world." If instead of using Spengler's outmoded terms, you substitute "West" and "Third World", you will find that his analysis was penetrating and dead on. It is Spengler's view that the West was (at the time) losing the will and the ability to dominate the rest of the globe, and that those who had been dominated, colonized and exploited by the West would seek to overthrow that domination. That has since come to pass, and indeed, like Spengler suggests, the Third World has not forgotten the colonial past, nor has it forgiven it.

Overall, I found this to be a fascinating read. If you liked The Decline of the West, then you will like this book. I guess I should add at this point that the Nazi's did not like this book, and banned it for its criticism of Nazism! I can't think of a higher recommendation for this book. Get it!

The Hour of Decision was written by the German thinker Oswald Spengler and first published in 1933, the year National Socialism took over power in German. The book is a fizzled and sad sequel, despite foreseeable, to Oswald Spengler's major opus, The Decline of the West, first published in 1918 and one has the feeling that he seemed to grab with both hands the historical window of opportunity to jump into (mainly) Mussolini's autocratic bandwagon, frequently quoting the italian dictator as incorporating many of the qualities of a would-be imperial autocrat, in the shadows of Julius Cesar, Napoleon and a few others, thus fulfilling the natural whole autocrats should have in the History of the West, as per the Decline of the West.

In my opinion, Oswald Spengler's The Hour of Decision is a racist pamphlet against Jews and all minorities, and deserves all the censure for its backward racist points-of-view.

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