From Dawn to Decadence : 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present

Rating:
Summary: A unique survey of the highest caliber
Review: One of the first questions any reviewer consciously or subconsciously engages is whether or not they could do better than the author. I don't think anyone else on the planet could have written this book. I would venture to say that with the possible exception of Harold Bloom, there may be no one as erudite or as well-read in the canon of western civilization as M. Barzun.

Pick up this book, find a comfortable chair with a good light and a warm, cozy fire, and prepare to learn something when you delve into its pages. Authors, artists, patrons, thinkers, revolutionaries and reformers parade across these pages in a sometimes truly dizzying and disconcerting array. This is the kind of book that spends maybe two pages on Leonardo and a page on the obscure English critic Hazlitt. It's the kind of book that bolds its themes: EMANCIPATION, ABSTRACTION, PRIMITIVISM, etc. It's the kind of book that begins with Christopher Columbus and ends with a discussion of rap and quotes by Bill Murray.

There is no way anyone will agree with 100% of his assessments (he makes too many for that to be possible), but everyone of his comments will provoke thought and stimulate the reader. I loved his little apercus that he'd just toss out at the end of certain sections like little hand grenades.

My biggest quibble is that he gives short shrift to every cultural contribution, but he really gives short shrift to Spanish, Scandinavian, and eastern European literature -- most of the book revolves around the big 5: Germany, France, Italy, UK, and the US, with some lip service to Russia and a nod to Don Quixote and a couple of other Latins, but nevertheless this is an enormous contribution to cultural history.

This is an original work by an original man, and while it may have been physically written over the past few years, the mental writing of this book took a lifetime. Everyone with aspirations to culture should engage this book. You won't regret it.

Rating:
Summary: A fascinating journey through the past 500 years
Review: This book begins with the Protestant Reformation in 1517, and continues to the present day. Many times histories can be very dry and difficult to read, but this 877 page book covers 500 years of Western Cultural Life in a very readable manner. The focus is on all the facets of Western culture through the centuries. This book is about 500 years of art, politics, religion, writing, philosophy, science, morals, and manners. One of the things that makes the book so interesting is that not only are historical and cultural revolutions covered, but the part that people had in important events and their effects on real people are described. The importance of individual people is greatly stressed in the book. This book shows that we all have many connections with the past. The events of each century have effected what happened in the following centuries, and in our lives today. Jacques Barzun describes our current age as being decadent; but that sense of decadence is really the end of one age and a new beginning for the future. That new beginning can see another flowering of Western culture. This book is the work of a lifetime, and I always had that awareness while reading it. There is a vast richness in the depth and range of this book that any review can only briefly describe. Reading this book is like looking back through the footprints of time, and seeing many of the places that we came from. Then there is also a vision of the path that may lay before us in the future. I recommend this excellent book to everyone.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad, limited.
Review: This is a wonderful book to read, but you shouldn't rely on it. Barzun concentrates on the cultural (and other) legacy of the countries he knows best. These are America, France and Britain. There is a lot of Germany, some Italy and bits and pieces of the rest of the "West". Nevertheless, it's worth reading for its innumerable little revelations. Barzun is an old fashioned conservative, almost a reactionary, but a happy one and quite agreeable. The book will work well in combination with different sources and material. Good knowledge of history is imperative.

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Summary: Barzun's Magnum Opus compares to Gibbon's treatise on Rome
Review: This was my introduction to this masterful thinker. I read a wide variety of non-fiction, including so-called "Intellectual" or "Social" History. Few works are comparable to Prof. Barzun's review of the ascent and decline of western culture. Gibbon's "Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire" comes first to mind. It was obviously influential in Barzun's personal history. Also, Daniel Boorstein's trilogy: "The Discoverers", "The Creators", and "The Seekers", individually or in toto, come to mind. In each of these Boorstein works, as with Barzun's "Dawn to Decadence", the fruits of one age are traced along often unlikely roots to a previous age. Sometimes, too, the vines of a given age bear disparate fruits.

The Beauty of this tome is not solely in the mastery of the subject matter. It is also not just the materful use of the language. Both of these are wonderful facets to this gem. What shines brightest is the flow of ideas and their impact on disparate areas of the culture; to see the pebble strike the pond and then to follow the ripples along their course. For example, the demonstration that our modern concepts of political democracy and personal freedoms can be traced directly to the Protestant Reformation. This alone was such an epiphany for me. I had never heard anyone trace this path in other works and, to my knowledge, no one else has freely done so since. This alone convinced me of Prof. Barzun's brilliance. I have since gathered and read almost everything that he has published. After all of these I am even more convinced of his unique genius.

I have recommended "From Dawn to Decadence" to few people whom I know or meet. Not because of anything lacking in the book. It is that this book will appeal to certain indivuals but will not be appreciated by the public at large. It is not for the casual reader; it is not an "easy read". It is "project reading". One must approach it with an open mind and, preferably, with the ability to schedule time to read. At 800 pages, none of which is mindless fluff, it takes time for even the most voracious reader.

If you favor "historical fiction" and rarely venture into the non-fiction aisles, then this book is not for you. If you love to learn and love to read, especially if you love to read for learning, then you should read this book. Consider it a "must read." It may change your world-view. I know that it changed mine.