Rating: 
Summary: If he were alive today........
Review: This is that most rare of scholarly books, namely, one that is well written and meaningful. Briefly, Mr. Lukacs holds that much of what came into being in western society, and is largely taken for granted even though it didn't exist in the Middle Ages, is disappearing or collapsing. This list includes the state (and it's ability to provide law and order to the common citizen), money (of any REAL value), industry, cities, books and literacy, and the right to privacy. None of this is too shocking, since, as he points out, even the common working man in a bar can readily recognise the analogy between American, or western, civilization and Roman civilization.
I find it interesting how more and more first rate minds, like Jacques Barzun (Dawn to Decadence) and Morris Berman (The Twilight of American Culture) are coming to quite simular historical summations. It seems that one no longer has to be a science fiction writer, pestimistic paranoid, or religious fanatic to see that we are nearing the end of of anything worth terming civilization.
Lukacs holds that the future struggle will be between those who hold that men are mere machines and those who hold that we are creatures (in a spiritual sense.) Put me down as a creature, please.
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