Rating: 
Summary: A seminal work of great importance
Review: Jacques Barzun has presented us with a tour de force of the last 500 years of Western cultural history, from Martin Luther to the present. His focus is on revolutionary events and cultural advances (and retreats). Beginning with the spotlight on religion and the religious revolution brought about by Luther and his contemporaries, he continues through a history of the Renaissance and its revolutionary movements in art and culture, pointing out among other things that the great figures did not evolve out of a vacuum, but from a stimulating ambience created by highly gifted figures around them. "Together, by what they do and say, they help to keep stirred up the productive excitement; they stimulate the genius in their midst; they are the necessary mulch for the period's exceptional growths." Of course, actual revolution--the violent, military sort--also works to evolve society, either forward or in regression, as does the advances in science, politics, medicine, philosophy and literature. Barzun is an astute observer, as well as an exceedingly effective reporter of his observations. His writing style is clear and lucid, and very easy to read. Nor is he retiring about expressing his views and thoughts. Clearly, he thinks that Western culture is in a state of decline at the present moment. The word 'decadence' in his title is a reference to the current period, but the condition may presage the Spring of another, modern Renaissance. This is a large volume; nearly 900 pages, but it is a book to savor. Barzun has spent a great deal of time and effort giving us this insight into our past, chronicling not only the events, but also their meaning and the anticipation of events they portend. To say simply that this is a "good book" is to do it a disservice. It is a substantial contribution to understanding our cultural history and its meaning to us. In my opinion, it is one of those rarities, a great book. Joseph H Pierre
Rating: 
Summary: Fascinating History and Essay Combined -- but obtuse.
Review: This book is a grand review of the past five hundred years of cultural history. It is also an essay written by a fascinating man, as he wanders through what he considers important. The two threads sometimes unravel, making for difficult reading.
Warning: As you read this book, you will be tempted to buy a hundred more books mentioned in the text -- Tasso sounds fascinating, why not read his stories? The author has a clear view, but is honest about showing it -- the title gives it away. The decadence he sees is intellectual, spiritual, cultural... a grossness of sensualism, a dumbing down of high culture, various trends that appear in capitals (PRIMITIVISM). These views make the historical work juicier, but a tad more tendentious. My one complaint is that the book reads a bit choppy, as the author writes in short hand, introducing topics suddenly, and moving on from them quickly. This requires an adjustment by the reader, but has a certain charm if you can get used to it. The book is rich and anyone who reads it needs some weeks, some good Port, and a comfortable chair. One question: why do you WANT to read a history of the past five hundred years? If it is simply to re-affirm your belief in western decadence, skip this book. The work is cultured and layered and will strongly challenge simplistic preconceptions while confirming a thesis that the west has been in decline. This is a Big Read -- it takes time, thought, patience, and work by the reader. I started reading the book five months ago, and have been picking it up off and on since then, finishing recently. The book needs this sort of time, and is worth the investment, but only if you have the desire.
Rating:
Summary: Good history lesson even if you disagree with the author
Review: I think some of the low ratings on this book are not really justified. Yes, he at times injects his own opinion which is not really substantiated by the facts. The most noticeable one for me was he plays down the role or validity of science in a way that reminds me of the "Contact" movie in which the director "spun" Carl Sagan/Ann Druyan's book & script to give faith equal weighting with science. I can see that people in the past have misapplied science to problems outside of it's scope (e.g. Swift satirizing silly scientists in Gulliver's Travels). But the nice thing about science is it can adapt until repeatable experts can verify something, whereas faith and dogma changes through violent upheavals which don't really prove anything except how nasty mankind can be. But anyway, outside of this digression, along the way through this tome you do discover some great stuff that is often outside of the usual canon of western European history, arts, and literature. The best I can compare this book to is something like Harold Bloom's Shakespeare treatise "The Invention of the Human." It's similar to this book by Barzun; you may not agree with their conclusions but at the very worst you'll learn a lot along the way about the subjects at hand.
Rating:
Summary: An Enjoyable Hodgepodge, But Not History
Review: The ironic thing about this book is that it is made for the modern "decadent" mindset, interspersed with short chapters and spicy interludes to keep those with short attention spans from putting the book down.-Hence its popularity.-For a comparison, try reading Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and you'll get a sense of what a real work of history is like.-But the book is fun. I mean, it's very interesting to read about these obscure figures whom Barzun feels that history has neglected, and other obscurities and eccentricities which one cannot help but feel Barzun took an impish delight in including.-But, all in all, the book is more kitschy than "Great."-Barzun leapfrogs from period to period seemingly at will with little or no sense of continuity, the spelling and grammatical mistakes abound (as noted by other acute reviewers) and those little side notes are also ENTERTAINING but NOT history.-I kept on getting the feeling I was reading "The Rime of The Ancient Mariner."-Barzun is no fool. He is an erudite and cultured man, and shrewd. He knows what sells books in this "decadent" culture. He has succeeded in doing so with this one. This book is essentially bubblegum, anecdotal history. But there's nothing wrong with this type of narrative. It's just not the real thing, as so many of you reviewers seem to feel. Before you burn me at the stake, just take a look at Gibbon's Decline and Fall, Hume's History of England, or Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples to get an idea of what thorough, narrative history is all about. Then you can go ahead and burn me!-And as far as Barzun's ultimate verdict on our age as demotic, I think he's perfectly correct. But I think he should have stuck with "demotic" rather than "decadent" because, even in Barzun's work, the word has too many connotations.-What this demotic age signals (among a host of other things Barzun is not shy about elaborating, in terrible prose) is that "the demand for genius has died out." Barzun's work is evidence of this! History for pop culture has never been so perfectly exemplified! -But, as I said, the book is fun and innocuous until the absurd end where he plays the millenium card, and unoubtedly sells googles of more books.-In his passage on the obscure Saint-Evremond, Barzun writes, "If the past could really be described as it felt when it was the present, it would show a large gathering of persons like Saint-Evremond, their contemporary admirers sure that here were the classics of the age and unable to believe that a later time would not even recognize the names."-Add Barzun and his worshipers to the crowd!
Rating: 
Summary: From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Culture
Review: This book is for Ph.D. students and history professors only. Barzun's obtuse writing style and nearly obsessive attention to historical detail makes this a very difficult read. After reading this book I needed to read something by John Keegan to reassure myself that great history and great writing are not mutually exclusive.
Rating: 
Summary: What a Disappointment
Review: I was so excited to read this book that I put it on my Christmas List. I couldn't wait to dive into it and glean the fascinating progression of western civilization. What a complete disappointment. The unbelievably disjointed quality of writing, constant back and forth between the past and today, and seemingly endless exposition of irrelevant facts made it impossible for me to follow the material. It took me about three minutes to read each page (a big investment for an 800 plus page book) and I still wasn't putting it together. I'm sure your IQ is much higher than mine, but I found this book to be pure torture.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful display of erudition.
Review: Jacques Barzun has amply displayed his encyclopedic knowledge with his latest work. The book is a compelling look at European history of the last 500 years. While the scope of the book is overwhelming, Barzun's narrative is engaging, entertaining, and beautifully written. Barzun, himself a distinguished academic, seems completely at ease with his material; the text, though exhaustively researched, is in no way pedantic. General readers and academics alike should find the text engrossing and compelling. While the book is not directed toward an academic audience, academics will still find within the pages of "From Dawn to Decadence" many passages that provide interesting perspectives on the last 500 years.
Rating:
Summary: A veritable time machine
Review: This book is simply amazing. The breadth and depth of this man's knowledge and critical faculties are absolutely stunning. Barzun's ability to synthesize his information, while avoiding the historian's error of viewing a certain period through the lens of another, is astonishing. Anyone interested in placing themselves and their time in a historical perspective will draw something wondrous from this book, regardless of whether your interests lie in the political, social, or cultural realm. Some of the sentences are grammatical oddities, but as this seems to be consistent throughout, I choose to think of it as a stylistic choice, rather than poor editing or sloppy writing. Unlike most of the reviewers, I really enjoyed the last chapter. I like curmudgeonly old people, and Jacques Barzun ranks up there among the finest (I think he too feels an affinity with this breed - page through the book and take a look at the writers and thinkers on whom he has chosen to focus). Furthermore, he seems to come by it honestly, unlike most of our know-nothing pop-culture cranks (of the left AND right). Perhaps he was a bit too eager to make the content of his book cohere to his theme, but the last chapter is fun and thought-provoking nonetheless.
Rating:
Summary: This book is boring!
Review: This is one of the most over rated books of the year. I could not get past the first 50 pages without falling asleep. The history of great ideas can be wonderful, but this book totally fails to bring the people, places and thoughts alive.
Rating: 
Summary: Well written but ultimately fuzzy
Review: This is a LONG book. After you're finished with it, you still don't really know if you learned anything. I agree in particular with the other reviewers that the last section is a waste of time. But even the really good stuff (well written, entertaining for the moment) leaves you at a loss. There's nothing wrong with expressing some point of view, and Barzun should have added some more to this book, not less.
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