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Summary: To begin a new era
Review: If everyone read with intent this masterpiece, the Western decadence would cease and a new, virtuous and productive future would begin. Left to the reader to distinguish moral value on the West's history, Barzan most eloquently and thoroughly weaves an epic of man's struggle to be free. He favors the French unmistakably, but everything he says is both truthful and the source of vast inspiration. Particular genius is witnessed in chapters entitled Utopias, Invisible College, Encyclopedic Century, Things Ride Man and Embracing the Absurd. The perspective gained in the momentous work is nothing less than enlightening. The reader will feel grateful after taking in the wisdom--and much, much more intelligent. Barzan's "From Dawn to Decadence" is a testament to humanity and the lingering volition for creativity, intellect, religion, righteousness, integrity, virtue, productivity, idealism. Read this book and then, go create so a stunning history for generations 500 years from now can be written about us!
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Summary: Barzun a Masterful Scholar
Review: Barzun's work is a marvel. Here we have the honor of listening to a genius who has lived 94 years with his eyes, mind and heart clearly open explicating 500 years of history in flawless, lucid prose. His erudition is astounding, yet inviting and intriguing. Every page of this absorbing work reveals a thought, a conclusion, an observation that must be memorized. He writes with a grace, depth, clarity, and authority rarely seen today. His prose brims with profundity while remaining completely devoid of affectation. To be in the audience of such a scholar is truly a refreshing and gratifying pleasure. If books like this can endure and become classics, then there is still hope for our decaying culture.
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Summary: "I wrote this book"
Review: If that's all Jacques Barzun has to say for himself, it should be enough -- if not before God, at least to whoever launched him on his career. This is how history ought to be written: witty, arising from magesterial study but focusing on telling details, sympathetic to a wide range of characters and beliefs and accomplishments (he comes close to getting both Pascal and Voltaire right), yet is also boldly partisan (of a party of one). Barzun offers wonderful vignettes on the already-known, (Bacon, Luther, Descartes, Nietzche, and dozens more) and on characters most of us will find obscure. Barzun gives only enough of politics and "events" to frame the story of western cultural life. Barzun throws the spot-light on his lesser-known subjects not for their benefit, he mostly convinces us, but for our own. They belong closer to the center stream of Western thought than they are usually placed. He devotes three pages to the 17th Century radical John Lilburne, whom he credits with precociously progressive views, obscure because he drew them unfashionably from St. Paul, rather than the laws of nature. In the 20th Century, he devotes another three pages to Dorothy Sayers, bypassing orthodox co-conspirators like Lewis, Tolkien, and Chesterton. But that provides relief: he keeps you on your toes. Sometimes he seems to be overreaching, but his insights are usually interesting and there hardly seems to be a platitude in the book. The time frame Barzun chooses is of course arbitrary. Some would say (and I think they're probably right) that the West was already set on the road to glory by date he chooses to open. And the story seems to fizzle out in the end, not so much in decadence, as from the focusing effect of looking at an object that is too close to see clearly. Also, in modern times boundaries between cultures have become porous; now we need a human story. But within the broad frame of his work, almost every splash and dot is interesting. author, True Son of Heaven
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Summary: Let the past teach you about the present
Review: A tour-de-force of scholarship and erudition that is at once entertaining and enlightening. Barzun's unique qualifications to write such a work (he's been alive for nearly 20% of the period this book covers) combined with his direct and percipient manner make this book well worth reading.
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Summary: A bright synthesis of our own culture
Review: Jacques Barzun greatly exemplifies what history is all about, and brings us a very dense and impressive work, where he defends his vision of the western culture since the Renaissance until its climax and the decadence he sees now.
While I was reading this book, I felt disappointed as the book is clearly "light" on the matters it touches. Anybody with a correct knowledge on one of the topics presented and discussed will surely find it very lightly depicted.
Still, I felt amazed at the end of my reading for the very impressive intellectual effort that represents being able to present a coherent system that makes an excellent job at explaining the evolution of our culture since the XVIth century.
Whether or not you will adhere to Jacques Barzun views is another matter ; anyway, knowing and understanding such a bright vision is definitely worth the money and (long) time you will invest in it.
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Summary: Sex, War, Oliver Cromwell!
Review: Brilliant, frightening and by far one of the most accessible histiry surveys ever written,'From Dawn to Decadance' will eventually earn it's place next to the works of Pliny and Toynbee. In fact, Jacques Barzun's masterwork may surpass them. Hugely ambitious, but written in a fluid, easy going style that brings to mind the best history class you've never had, 'From Dawn to Decadance' takes you on western civilization's five hundred year decline into ruin. Not the downer I make it sound like, Barzun wisely shows us history from the perspective most valued in our post-modern era, the cultural. Shy on battles and politics and big on ballads, books, and social values, the book also shows how our obsession with the details of our own culture has led to its demise. Fascinating stuff. Honest.
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Summary: A work of art from a master
Review: This book is so artfully written and falls together so beautifully that it is an emotional experience for those who enjoy History. Barzun lends a storytellers excitement and sense of timing to a Historians intimate feel with the currents of Western thought, were it has been and were it might be going.
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Summary: Decline of the West?
Review: In "From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present" Jacques Barzun comes as close as one can expect to a thorough yet readable examination of 500 years of cultural history, especially when the culture under study is that of the densely packed western civilization. The 500 years of this study was not chosen by Barzun at random or because it is a nice round number. He chose it because of his belief that western civilization began around the year 1500 with the instigation of the Protestant Reformation by Martin Luther (a belief that I myself share, see my review of Richard Marius' biography of Luther). Barzun sees the Reformation as the revolution that ushered in western civilization. Barzun says that revolutions are "violent transfer[s] of power and property in the name of an idea." To Barzun, western civilization has experienced four such moments: 1) the religious revolution of the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s, 2) the 17th century monarchical revolution that created the modern nation, 3) the late-18th/early-19th century liberal or individualist revolution that ushered in the rights of man, and 4) the 20th century social and collectivist revolution that led to the creation of the welfare state and which is leading to the demise of the nation-state. These periodic revolutions are important because they augur great shifts in culture which have repeatedly infused western civilization with new great works in literature, music, sculpture, architechture, etc. The term 'decadence' can easily be misinterpreted from the way that Barzun intends it. Decadence is any period in which the compelling forces from a previous revolution are no longer inspiring works of cultural import. These decadent periods are ripe for revolutions. If no revolution takes place, then that is when decline sets in and destroys the existing civilization. Once decline sets in, it may be impossible to prevent the disintegration of the civilization. Barzun believes we are at such a period in western history. The collectivist revolution embodied in the Soviet Union and the welfare state has run its course and is no longer inspiring works of genius. Arists of all kinds are casting around for something new and are generally coming up very short in comparison to their predecessors. Barzun says that this is a prime characteristic of a period of decadence. His best example of this is Andy Warhol's 'Brillo Box' sculpture. As Warhol said, "Art is what you can get away with." Barzun draws on the 500 years of western cultural creations to display this cycle of birth, growth, genius, decay, and rebirth to prove the point. Herein lies the question in Barzun's work: are we at a point of rebirth or decline in western civilization? Barzun seems to point to the latter, especially with his hypothetical view of the present from the space of 300 years. I may not wholly agree with Barzun's assessment; but, I also won't bet against him either.
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Summary: The title, "From Dawn to Decadence," says it all .....
Review: Nevertheless, if you have yet to read Barzun's great work, then read the long list of reviews in the paperback edition's front by some of the English-speaking world's most distinguished publications, their authors and editors. I find Barzun's work uniquely catholic (universal) and non-sectarian. Here is History written without bias, jingoism, sectarianism, and the other usual limitations in an author's mind. Barzun not only knows, he can express it, without the usual academic self-consciousness. This book tells us living in this age of decadence: we have nothing to be arrogant about; but also that it is great to be alive. I love this book, and its author for writing it.
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Summary: One of My All-Time Favorite Books
Review: The amazing thing about this work is how easily and quickly it reads. For a book that records the history of Western civilization as we know it, that's not very easy to do. Moreover, it's an incredibly useful reference guide because of its format. If you want to know what the humanists were all about, for example, you can find it quickly and easily and get a good grasp of the information in a short period of time. This book reads like a novel and is packed with an amazing amount of knowledge. It makes you feel smart. I couldn't recommend it more.
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