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"A stunning five-century study of civilization's cultural retreat." -- William Safire, New York Times Highly regarded here and abroad for some thirty works of cultural history and criticism, master historian Jacques Barzun has set down in one continuous narrative the sum of his discoveries and conclusions about the whole of Western culture since 1500. Barzun describes what Western Man wrought from the Renaissance and Reformation down to the present in the double light of its own time and our pressing concerns. He introduces characters and incidents with his unusual literary style and grace, bringing to the fore those that have been forgotten or obscured. His compelling chapters--such as "Puritans as Democrats," "The Monarchs' Revolution," and "The Artist Prophet and Jester"--show the recurrent role of great themes throughout the era. The triumphs and defeats of five hundred years form an inspiring saga that modifies the current impression of one long tale of oppression by white European males. Women and their deeds are prominent, and freedom (even in sexual matters) is not an invention of the last decades. And when Barzun rates the present not as a culmination but a decline, he is in no way a prophet of doom. Instead, he shows decadence as the normal close of great periods and a necessary condition of the creative novelty that will burst forth--tomorrow or the next day. Only after a lifetime of separate studies covering a broad territory could a writer create with such ease the synthesis displayed in this magnificent volume.… (mere)
This book is a long read on the cultural history of the west, requiring nearly as much time to think about what the author says as to read it. It is one of the most insightful and thought-provoking books I've ever read. I had post-it flags throughout marking passages whose ideas I wanted to discuss with my husband. It is not a book I could read with distractions or when tired, and so it took me a while to finish, what with all the kids and all the work making me almost always distracted, tired, or both. After finishing, I'm actually a little sad to part from Jacques Barzun and his sharp mind and sharp tongue. Despite my long to-read list and the length and density of this book and the challenge of finding the time and mental energy for it, I fully expect to return to it, to reread parts or the whole, when I want to spend some time sitting around with a great mind with no patience for muddled thinking and intellectual laziness. ( )
To get the four stars you have to ignore the last 200 pages or so. His politics ,his cultural bias and his economics all stop the book cold and is kinda disappointing. ( )
I read this several years ago, while Barzun trod the earth. Most of it is worth five stars. But there is a serious flaw. Barzun had no clue how science works. His anti-science attitude was sadly misdirected. His declared beef was in fact against a caricature of science and scientists, a cartoon fancy held by some people who haven't any idea how, for example, a radio works beyond the knobs on the front. Barzun appeared to be one of them. Thus his proper argument lay with his own bias; a paradox that he failed to divine.
Or perhaps he painted himself into a corner by his pretentious choice of book title and preferred a willful ignorance about the enormous value created throughout the 20th century in many domains. That effect may explain the poor reaction of many goodreads reviewers to the last part of the book.
I don't recall Barzun giving any recognition to scientists or science, or noticing the influence of science upon events and ideas, or of events and ideas upon science. An excellent remedy is "The Western Intellectual Tradition, from Leonardo to Hegel" by Jacob Bronowski and Bruce Mazlish, a balanced and very readable survey of the same subject by eminent scholars, solid five stars.
During the May 68 uprising in France, a phrase that was written on a wall somewhere read: "Professors, you make us grow old." That moment in history is one of my favorites to read about, but the above quote never totally clicked with me. Now that I've read this book by Jacques Barzun, a stuffy liberal studies professor, I totally get it.
Seriously, this guy has such a wettie for western civ. Also, he thinks "decadence" is an insult, wtf? My favorite part was his comparing the (at the time) recent influx of privilege politics into the academy to the Inquisition. Or, even better, maybe it was the European witchhunts, I don't remember. Either way...totally bro, you're such a victim. ( )
An extremely thorough book full of intelligent ideas, most of which - I'm sad to say - were beyond the reach of my IQ. In fits and starts I had to claw my way through this read with only bursts of understanding in the way of a fantastic quote or enlightening passage to keep me moving on. I would still recommend it, Jacques Barzun is brilliant, however one must have great powers of concentration to be able to digest such an undertaking as this. ( )
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Mankind does nothing save through initiatives on the part of inventors, great or small, and imitation by the rest of us Individuals show the way, set the patterns. The rivalry of the patterns is the history of the world. - William James (1908)
Tilegnelse
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To All Whom It May Concern
Første ord
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The Modern Era begins, characteristically, with a revolution.
Citater
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How a revolution erupts from a commonplace event - tidal wave from a ripple - is cause for endless astonishment. . . . ardent youths full of hope as they catch the drift of the idea, rowdies looking for fun, and characters with a grudge. Cranks and tolerated lunatics come out of houses, criminals out of hideouts, and all assert themselves.
The "findings" [of scientism] have inspired policies affecting daily life that were enforced with the same absolute assurance as earlier ones based on religion.
This opposition to freedom of thought must, according to that very thought, be tolerated, thus creating a general lack of direction that a dictator will supply.
Providence, like predestination, lifts the burden of responsibility from the individual, as does their equivalent today: scientific and psychological determinism eliminates responsibility for bahavior, crime included.
What the journalists of every type see as their proper task is to form, with the help of rumor and current prejudice, what is called public opinion.
. . . great institutions are undone as much by their presumable guardians as by their enemies.
No machinery existed for the purpose [of changing the structure of government]; and given this difficulty, the more despotic the ruler the greater the likelihood of change - provided he made the [sanctioned propaganda source] his bedside book.
What is preferable [to the savage state] when society and property have become established and the inequality of talents is revealed, is that ability should be rewarded for the advantage of the community. . . . when in time wealth and rank no longer correspond to merit, the disparity becomes an injustice and leads to instability.
It is logical that this century's taste for aberrations, which it sees as a norm previously obscured by prejudice, have made of De Sade's doings and writings "an important moment in the history of ideas and of literature."
The 19th- and 20th-century religion of art originates in this period and Mme de Staël is, with her contemporary Chateaubriand, one of the prime apostles.
. . . to replace by fiat one set of [legal and social] forms with another, thought up by some improver, no matter how intelligent, ends in disaster.
So close is sexuality to politics that nearly all revolutions and social utopias begin by decreeing free love and then turn puritanical when the leaders see that license undermines authority.
A movement in thought or art produces its best work during the uphill fight to oust the enemy; that is, the previous thought or art. Victory brings on imitation and ultimately Boredom.
. . . compassion easily becomes a selfish pleasure fostering self-righteousness. It requires a constant supply of the poor and the weak, instead of encouraging the healthful and self-reliant.
The blow that hurled the modern world on its course of self-destruction was the Great War of 1914-18.
When the nation's history is poorly taught in schools, ignored by the young, and proudly rejected by qualified elders, awareness of tradition consists only in wanting to destroy it.
The point at which good intentions exceeded the power to fulfill them marked for the culture the onset of decadence.
Individuals of ordinary talent or glibness were encouraged to become professionals and thereby doomed to disappointment; and too many others, with just enough ability to get by, contributed to the lowering of standards and the surfeit of art.
Fraud was the sport of capable minds and lofty souls who wanted to rise above commerce and make-believe. . . . codes of prefessional ethics had to be written and rewritten to cover new offences. Simpler kinds of cheating were popular among university students . . .
The turn of the [20th] century was a turning indeed; not an ordinary turning "point," but rather a turntable on which a whole crowd of things facing one way revolved till they faced the opposite way.
Sidste ord
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But the preceding survey of demotic life and times can be chronologically situated and described as A VIEW FROM NEW YORK AROUND 1995.
"A stunning five-century study of civilization's cultural retreat." -- William Safire, New York Times Highly regarded here and abroad for some thirty works of cultural history and criticism, master historian Jacques Barzun has set down in one continuous narrative the sum of his discoveries and conclusions about the whole of Western culture since 1500. Barzun describes what Western Man wrought from the Renaissance and Reformation down to the present in the double light of its own time and our pressing concerns. He introduces characters and incidents with his unusual literary style and grace, bringing to the fore those that have been forgotten or obscured. His compelling chapters--such as "Puritans as Democrats," "The Monarchs' Revolution," and "The Artist Prophet and Jester"--show the recurrent role of great themes throughout the era. The triumphs and defeats of five hundred years form an inspiring saga that modifies the current impression of one long tale of oppression by white European males. Women and their deeds are prominent, and freedom (even in sexual matters) is not an invention of the last decades. And when Barzun rates the present not as a culmination but a decline, he is in no way a prophet of doom. Instead, he shows decadence as the normal close of great periods and a necessary condition of the creative novelty that will burst forth--tomorrow or the next day. Only after a lifetime of separate studies covering a broad territory could a writer create with such ease the synthesis displayed in this magnificent volume.
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