From Dawn to Decadence : 500 Years of Western Cultural Life by JACQUES BARZUN - May 2001

Harpercollins, May 2001. Paper Back. New. Nearing the century mark in age, Jacques Barzun caps a distinguished career of consistently remarkable literary and cultural criticism with this tour-de-force retrospective of the triumphs and tragedies of five hundred years of Western culture. Barzun concentrates on the historical path of ideas rather than simply recounting events, illuminating aspects of, for example, the Reformation and the Renaissance that have wended their way through the centuries to shape and transform our own lives and minds. As the title indicates, Barzun sees the twentieth-century, especially since World War I, as a new dark age, during which the gains so hard-won in the realms of political freedom, moral wisdom, and technological prowess have been progressively sacrificed and squandered. The signs: deconstruction in literature and the arts, lowered standards and political-correctness in education, relativism in morals. Strangely, though, this is not a depressing book. Barzun's crystal-clear prose and brilliant storytelling, his weaving of many mini-histories into a grand tapestry, his ability to successfully articulate difficult concepts -- all bear witness to an awesome caliber of genius to which even a dark age can give birth.