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What are readers saying about From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present?
| Reviews of From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present - Page 1 of 2 |
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-06-14 06:07:55.
(Language: English)
 
Brilliant! Brilliant! If you wish to understand society of today, trace the historic preceding events that led to where we are today; it all makes lucidly sound sense...and Decadence is indeed what Western society has evolved towards.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-05-17 07:17:59.
(Language: English)
Sweeping - I lost myself in this book and just took in 500 years of a panoramic view of how the entire western world moved out of the Middle Ages into "Decadence." Quite detailed on the history side, which I tend to revel in.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-04-23 10:38:21.
(Language: English)
Top shelf world history from a master.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-10-09 12:43:38.
(Language: English)
My historical education was terribly inadequate, as this book is proving to me.
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A Reader posted a review at 2010-01-31 10:55:17.
(Language: English)
2nd best work explaining how this world became this way
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-01-08 07:11:28.
(Language: English)
maybe you should read this book too!
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-10-21 12:18:45.
(Language: English)
A fantastic history and a must read for people who love history. Very inciteful. An inciteful masterpiece of history. Great book. All history buffs should read it.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-04-26 11:08:54.
(Language: English)
Masterful overview of Western Civilization.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-02-14 08:52:08.
(Language: English)
An awesome book. Superb insight, and the writing style makes it a joy to read. Barzun is excellent reading.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-07-28 09:53:20.
(Language: English)
I'm about 3/4th of the way through. The problem with this book is that it touches on so much without enough time to really explain anything. Maybe if I had taught history for 50 years like Barzun I would have gained more from this somewhat tedious text.
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A Reader posted a review at 2011-04-03 07:36:42.
(Language: English)
This is the best non-fiction book I've ever read. The writing is lucid, witty, stylish and insightful. The breadth of Barzun's range and the luminance of his insights make reading this book a thrilling journey. Did you have a favorite professor, one who was brilliant and engaging, whom you'd be happy to listen to for hours? Reading this book is like spending weeks with such a professor. I even wrote him a thank you note. He's still alive, at 103 years of age.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-01-05 10:28:22.
(Language: English)
This is a huge survey of western civ beginning with medeival times and ending with the late 20th century. Very interesting overview showing how we got here. Barzun has an amazing, encyclopedic mind and an interesting perspective. He offers recommended readings along the way for greater depth. I liked the format and the way it was broken up so that I was able to read it in small doses over a long period of time. Enjoyable for sure.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-10-05 09:22:06.
(Language: English)
I have read "From Dawn to Decadence" several times, underlining, cross referencing dates and names with the index of names, and memorizing stuff. After reading it the last time I just started over. It is an essential education for anyone who wants to know something about the world we swim in - the individuals whose ideas and actions stand out, what they did and said, who they influenced and where these ideas and actions took (are taking) us. BTW "decadence," writes Barzun is merely a technical term denoting a historical period during which people find their lives increasingly circumscribed by more and more conventions and requirements meaningless, absurd and burdensome to them.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-06-15 04:10:53.
(Language: English)
if you love history as i do,this is a insightful read
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-09-17 10:16:07.
(Language: English)
Interesting view of 500 Years of Western History! Best part of it is the connections Barzun makes between cultural movements, artists, politics and economic systems. Paul Lanier
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-12-02 02:42:02.
(Language: English)
Barzun is a master historian, with half a decade of incredible works to show for it. He has ample space and leeway here to make this his "end-of-life-opinion-piece." His views are highly interesting, well-argued, and sometimes completely wrong. Fantastic reading if you like a bit of a lecture at times.
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Jack posted a review at 2011-06-25 02:06:15.
(Language: English)
Wonderful book to sub with - perfect to dip into as time allows. Very well written and readable, lots of juicy facts (eg Borgia's). Learned a lot!
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-06 01:44:30.
(Language: English)
I borrowed it from the library awhile ago. I hope to obtain a hard cover copy soon. all I seem to see in borders are soft covers.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-06-11 02:58:59.
(Language: English)
I'm enjoying reading history these days, but this cultural history caught me off guard. I'm used to political/military history, and this was more reflective and contained less story-telling. I enjoyed it, but there were sections that seemed to drag (because the author was dwelling on areas of little interest?) Also, pretty poor coverage of economic history.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-01-14 09:09:39.
(Language: English)
A must read for every college student. This book takes you on a journey of the last 500 years in Europe from when we entered the dawn of the Renaissance to the decadence of the 1990s. Though lamenting the fall of today's world, the author believes that civilization will eventually have another rebirth.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-01-26 03:41:53.
(Language: English)
The best history book in my opinion. It's long, but it pulls together so much and very accessibly.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-03-03 03:31:09.
(Language: English)
Barzun is a wonderful writer who covers every historical aspect of culture, politics and economics that one needs to know. It was a pleasure and a joy to read.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-07-04 05:27:45.
(Language: English)
All encompassing summary of 500 years of Western modernity.
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adina posted a review at 2009-10-10 01:16:13.
(Language: English)
Ecellent. entertaining and teaching. A very intelligent and original overview of events as "waves" rather than isolated occurences. Giving a frame of culture, politics, fashion, poetry, art, technology and personalities to a known event, turning it from a poster to an intelligible human experience.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-06-15 11:20:54.
(Language: English)
This Book Is 6384 Pages LongAfter having read Jacques Barzun’s suma seven times, I have concluded that this book is not really 912 pages long as it appears in the product details, but rather 6384 pages. Every time I read this masterpiece, I find new ideas and fresh material on every page. Seemingly, the book is an endless fount of intellect, culture, etiquette, morals, art, science, politics, and genius that serves as the capstone of the last era and the cornerstone for the next.The first thing to note about ‘From Dawn to Decadence’ is that it is no ordinary history. It is a ‘cultural history’ (Barzun is the preeminent scholar in that department), which means that you will not get a thorough account of the events and even personalities of the last 500 years. Culture is made up of the people in general, social trends, and the product of man, and so historical elements such as war and disaster, which are admittedly important to understanding our past, are not covered here. The author does investigate the lives of prominent people and of course explores the events, but does so only with regard to the ‘ideas’ that have arisen in our era. With that focus, Barzun uses the historical pretext to uncover the kind of truths about life that can only be found in philosophical works.The ideas are summarized in the Part heads, whose style mirror the book’s title. They take the reader ‘From Luther’s Ninety-five Theses to Boyle’s Invisible College’; ‘From the Bog and Sand of Versailles to the Tennis Court’; ‘From Faust, Part I, to “Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2â€â€™; and ‘From “the Great Illusion†to “Western Civ Has Got to Goâ€â€™. Through each transition, one can see how Western man grows and develops from a restless, nascent people to a mature, decadent culture. Do not read this book hoping to get a fresh reiteration of what we learn in modern media or even what we learn in school about what was important in our history, especially of the 20th century. You will be disappointed to find that the Great Depression and World War II are mentioned only in passing and Ernest Hemmingway and Jackson Pollack are not touted as amazing geniuses. Do not expect to read about Ayn Rand or the Beatles. These elements of our past that we believe to be so important in our lives are shown to be insignificant consequences of larger, more dominant historical forces. The people and events mentioned here are actually consequences of the historical force of Decadence, which, in a cultural history, is rightly demeaned. The reader realizes how insignificant the 20th century is after reading about the previous 400 years of cultural growth anyway. The people and events covered in first three parts are shown to be much more deserving of our attention and admiration.One must smile upon reflection—Erasmus, Petrarch, Montaigne, Bruno, Pascal, Cromwell, Diderot, Beddoes, Hazlitt, Bagehot, William James. The modern reader does not recognize half of the names that Barzun features, but realizes once he has read about them what kind of genius they offered and why it is important to learn about them and multiply their ideas. Attached to some of the names, but also quite independent elements in themselves, are the nine themes that this book presents: Emancipation, Primitivism, Reductivism, Analysis, Abstraction, Scientism, Secularism, Specialization, and Self-consciousness. Given small caps for designation, these themes appear throughout the story as currents that flow through the era’s cultural stream, each introducing its own captivating idea worth significant attention. This technique and other innovations make ‘From Dawn to Decadence’ a ground-breaking work in style as well as in content. Barzun employs reference tools (forward and backward-pointing page numbers, ‘the book to read is’ recommendations, and unique formatting for section breaks) to accommodate study. He also institutes ‘add-ins’, which function like the familiar ‘pull-outs’, but offer the reader extra material in the form of “‘the real self and voice’ of the persons in the drama.â€Aside from the original techniques, the book stands out because of Barzun’s literary genius, a talent that must rival the talent of all of history’s great writers. It would be a challenge to find another work that expresses so many ideas and educates so thoroughly while constantly engaging and entertaining the audience as this masterpiece does. The book must be considered a new standard for cultural history and letters in general as well as a benchmark for all future cultural works. There simply is not a more rewarding book out there.Read this book once and your life will change forever. Read it a seventh time and you will vow to return to the book as often as possible.
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| Reviews of From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present - Page 1 of 2 |
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