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From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life by Jacques Barzun
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From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural…

by Jacques Barzun

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1,689191,967 (4.11)20
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This is so well written it's unbelieveable! I couldn't put it down. After reading this I felt as if I should carry it around with me at all times as reference book for everything! Very thorough and extremely well written. A definite read, you will be much wiser by the end! ( )
  trinibaby9 | Nov 24, 2009 |
The book presents a half millenium of western culture in an intriguing format; for example, cultural trends and iconic persons and events are captured memorably. Further, there are good resources--indices, in-book cross references, etc.--for tracing out or interrelating the seemingly infinite number of ideas he has written about.

Barzun is erudite, witty, comprehensively knowledgeable (but, see below). He is also so opinionated and judgmental that finally the reader (this reader) says, as he might to a supremely beautiful peacock after hours of displaying, "Is that all there is?" The book is an (entertaining) intellectual display; nevertheless, the erudition, wit and comprehensive knowledge, after several hundred pages, begin to lose their luster, as one realizes that the center of attention for the author is Barzun himself.

Hence, the three stars.

Clark ( )
  clarkwebb | Oct 15, 2009 |
7 February 2001
From Dawn to Decadence
Jacques Barzun

This is an enormous survey of Western cultural history, from 1500 to the present. He is a history professor at Columbia, and has therefore some choice words to say about the anti-Western Civilization radicals. The book has some unusual features, with themes in block caps, and discussions of individuals and their contributions rather eclectically arranged. It took many evenings to read, and generated a good deal of interesting sidelights, into persons like William James. ( )
  neurodrew | Aug 25, 2009 |
Attempting to review such a vast and impressive story is somewhat presumptuous, but ever mind. Fascinating and rewarding to read in full, this book is no less than a sweep through the whole of western civilization since Luther. It's real meat and potatoes stuff, to be savoured and absorbed rather than skimmed. It is surely one of the most satisfying books I have ever read. And it shows that history is definitely not boring. ( )
1 vote broughtonhouse | Apr 16, 2009 |
This is a truly amazing compilation of everything you want to know about the past 500 years of western culture. The unique format makes it far less than dry. Barzun has opinions and doesn't shy away from expressing them, but he does it in a way that is informative rather than otherwise. His references have led me to many other sources that I would not ordinarily have known about. ( )
  philoso4 | Mar 6, 2009 |
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Decadence

Western culture

Book description

Amazon.com Amazon.com Reviews (ISBN 0060175869, Hardcover)

In the last half-millennium, as the noted cultural critic and historian Jacques Barzun observes, great revolutions have swept the Western world. Each has brought profound change--for instance, the remaking of the commercial and social worlds wrought by the rise of Protestantism and by the decline of hereditary monarchies. And each, Barzun hints, is too little studied or appreciated today, in a time he does not hesitate to label as decadent.

To leaf through Barzun's sweeping, densely detailed but lightly written survey of the last 500 years is to ride a whirlwind of world-changing events. Barzun ponders, for instance, the tumultuous political climate of Renaissance Italy, which yielded mayhem and chaos, but also the work of Michelangelo and Leonardo--and, he adds, the scientific foundations for today's consumer culture of boom boxes and rollerblades. He considers the 16th-century varieties of religious experimentation that arose in the wake of Martin Luther's 95 theses, some of which led to the repression of individual personality, others of which might easily have come from the "Me Decade." Along the way, he offers a miniature history of the detective novel, defends Surrealism from its detractors, and derides the rise of professional sports, packing in a wealth of learned and often barbed asides.

Never shy of controversy, Barzun writes from a generally conservative position; he insists on the importance of moral values, celebrates the historical contributions of Christopher Columbus, and twits the academic practitioners of political correctness. Whether accepting of those views or not, even the most casual reader will find much that is new or little-explored in this attractive venture into cultural history. --Gregory McNamee

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:15 -0400)

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