The Decline of the West (Oxford Paperbacks) [Abridged] (Paperback)

There are scholarly contrasts to Spengler's study. William McNeill's 'Rise of the West' provides a direct challenge to many of its conclusions. Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' or Werner Jaeger's 'Paedeia' (on Greek classical culture) might be good comparative reference books, but these have now been relegated in public familiarity to dusty and esoteric academic departments. Spengler's work, however, falls squarely and uniquely into the realm of a great work of the Deist tradition of Western social philosophy, from which its reputation for skepticism comes. Its apparent mysticism emanates from the deep investigation into the intellectual attitude of the Western mind. There are, of course, other traditions in the 'Western' mix which have broad and predictive implications. This opus should not be misconstrued of as a work of pessimism. Constructive action and faith are, in fact, its basis for the prospect of vigorous and sustained regeneration of the human cause.

This is an exacting study. It requires a critical attitude to penetrate and to see that it has a fundamentally human and hopeful (and debatable) message. Decline of the West does in fact provide drama, grandeur, context and understanding to the sweep of history. It is accessible, though, to the determined general reader and constitutes a significant contribution to 20th Century thought. Those who do not learn from history are bound to repeat it.

The contrast between the modern West and classical antiquity can be highly instructive, Spengler is not the first to see analogies between the Atlantic and the Adriatic, but he takes it too far. One can perhaps see Adolf Hitler as the archetype of Caesarism and the current Pax Americana as the universal state of the Augustan age. Despite these superficial similarities the differences are still innumerable not least that America remains a republic, its incipient plutocracy still falls far short of dictatorship. His equation of Alexander with Napoleon is pure fantasy and where are the Classical equivalents of the Reformation and Renaissance? And ultimately how can a civilisation in such serious decline have been able to the greatest technological, economic and social, if not cultural, achievements in all of human history.

So how does it deserve four stars? Well even if its ultimate conclusions are fallacious many of his incidental observations and expositions are fascinating, especially those dealing with the pre-Islamic Middle East. The complicated yet hugely significant millennium that elapsed between Alexander the Great and Mohammed is so often ignored that to have it dealt with at all is highly refreshing. Spengler's analysis of these developments certainly ring a lot truer then do those of the supposed empiricist, Toynbee. When dealing with the past at all, as most of the book does, Spengler's prose is not only beautiful but sparkles with insight and intellectual verve. It is only when he turns prophet that he begins to lose tack a little, as is always the fate of the futurist.

Decline of the West is more a work of metaphysics then it is of history and if it does not belong directly to the school of German idealism then it is certainly heir to it, I was amazed that Hegel only gets one outside mention though Nietzsche fares considerably better. His principal tool of approach is that of culture which is approached metaphysically as its 'Soul'. The soul of the west is described by the neologism Faustian (Spengler now showing his debt to Goethe and the romantics, all in all this is an extremely German book) and has as its defining feature its emphasis on the infinite. This is contrasted with the souls of various different civilisations that have existed from time to time.

This is a rich approach and Spengler mines it for all its worth unearthing many treasures. This is the main business of the book and so much of it is so wonderful and so originally creative that it quite takes the breath away. His take on the Reformation particularly was quite stunningly perceptive.
For all that it ultimately fails to deliver Decline of the West remains an important text and one that provides the reader with a vastly improved mental framework for assessing the current trajectory of our great civilisation. Spengler does make one wonder as well why the West's post war social and economic achievements have so manifestly not been mirrored in the realm of culture and makes one wonder what the secularisation and extreme atomisation that has resulted from increased commercialisation means for the future of our social advancement. The truth is that a certain version of the west, the old Faustian souls perhaps that found refuge in Gothic Cathedrals, is in fact dying, stifled in a world that it has created but cannot find a place within. We live in a time of immense flux on a truly global scale as we try to refashion a global society, a hypercivilisation, out of the detritus of empire. We live in unparalleled times and what the outcome will be no one can possibly tell. Spengler remains an excellent guide to how we got to where we are and in helping make sense of the post modern culture that surrounds us. I just hope he's wrong about the centuries of impending warfare that's all.

People living in the West, and particularly America, would do well to read this moving piece of literature. It might help dispell once and for all the casual attitude which assumes that "this" is infinite.