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From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life by Jacques Barzun
kyscg's review
challenging
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
3.0
Very comprehensive, very illuminating, took me a long time to finish. I collected a bunch of quotes that I really enjoyed reading...
"Perform the acts of faith and faith will come", by Ignatius of Loyola
"Science has cut Man down to size and broken his pride: Copernicus removed him from the center of the universe; Darwin reduced him to the status of animal; and Jung dethroned his intellect and put instinct in its place"
"The importance attached to Time in the West is a distinctive trait: Swift’s Gulliver looks at his watch so often that his hosts the Brobdingnagians think he is consulting his god"
"As Goethe’s Faust says at the start of his adventure, ‘In the beginning was not the Word, but the Act.’ The Word—an abstraction—comes after"
"Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson rank with Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, and it is hard to think of a third partnership of equal renown. Indeed, in a fundamental sense they are the same pair, bent on a similar quest but in a different costume, 300 years apart"
"Finding oneself is a misnomer. A self is not found but made"
"Perform the acts of faith and faith will come", by Ignatius of Loyola
"Science has cut Man down to size and broken his pride: Copernicus removed him from the center of the universe; Darwin reduced him to the status of animal; and Jung dethroned his intellect and put instinct in its place"
"The importance attached to Time in the West is a distinctive trait: Swift’s Gulliver looks at his watch so often that his hosts the Brobdingnagians think he is consulting his god"
"As Goethe’s Faust says at the start of his adventure, ‘In the beginning was not the Word, but the Act.’ The Word—an abstraction—comes after"
"Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson rank with Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, and it is hard to think of a third partnership of equal renown. Indeed, in a fundamental sense they are the same pair, bent on a similar quest but in a different costume, 300 years apart"
"Finding oneself is a misnomer. A self is not found but made"
michael_soileau's review
4.0
A masterful cross section of cultural developments over the last five hundred years. Large in scale, without skimping on detail overly much, this book displays a lifetime of experiencing and thinking about culture in it's widest application. If the book had ended at the 19th century I would have given this book a five star rating. The very end of the book and it's bitter condemnation of anything that has been done, thought and grown since 1920 stings and feels unreal. The tendency to reject this view as the the anger of an old man who felt out of place is easy, but after the quality of the work delivered over the previous hundreds of pages it cannot be that simple. The possiblity that Barzun had a point remains there perhaps even likely, though it cannot be observed from the vantage point of my mind at this time.
i_have_no_process's review
informative
inspiring
5.0
There are intellectual giants and there are delicious wordsmiths and there are crafty storytellers. And then there's Barzun, who encompasses all.
davehershey's review
5.0
How did we get to where we are today in Western culture? One of my favorite books of all time, A Secular Age by Charles Taylor, seeks to answer that question. Specifically, Taylor looks at how we moved from believing in God,mostly without question, in 1500 to having many options today. When I saw this book at the used bookstore, I was intrigued because of the topic (and the great deal!). But though Barzun covers the same period as Taylor, his book is quite different.
As I read the book I perused some reviews and Barzun's Wikipedia page. Through that I learned he wrote this book in his 90s as his magnum opus! Near the end when he finally gets to WWI he writes from firsthand memory, which kind of nearly blew my mind. It was also amazing that he wrote this in his 90s for the book is filled with references to all sorts of people that casual students of history have never even heard of. He tells the story you may think you have heard before, but soon realize is vastly more complex then you knew.
Though I was enjoying this book, I was not sure what to make of it. At first it seemed like what you would expect - beginning in 1500 the first figure discussed is Luther. But soon Barzun is discussing opera and poetry. It was not till I got to his chapter on the French Revolution that I finally realized the genuis of this book. Barzun discussed Napolean's invasion of Egypt, but his focus was not on the battles but on the thinkers Napolean took with and their work which has mostly been forgotten, influential as it was. If you want a history book that tells you history focused on political leaders and war, there are other books. Such books are probably a prerequisite for this one, as Barzun assumes a basic understanding of much of the actual historical events. This book is centered on culture - music and art and literature. Of course, philosophy and politics and economics appear too. But I learned more then I ever cared to know about the history of opera, for example.
The final chapter, where Barzun discusses the present day (well, 1995) is worth the price of the book. We've reached decadence and it is not pleasant.
Overall, highly recommended.
As I read the book I perused some reviews and Barzun's Wikipedia page. Through that I learned he wrote this book in his 90s as his magnum opus! Near the end when he finally gets to WWI he writes from firsthand memory, which kind of nearly blew my mind. It was also amazing that he wrote this in his 90s for the book is filled with references to all sorts of people that casual students of history have never even heard of. He tells the story you may think you have heard before, but soon realize is vastly more complex then you knew.
Though I was enjoying this book, I was not sure what to make of it. At first it seemed like what you would expect - beginning in 1500 the first figure discussed is Luther. But soon Barzun is discussing opera and poetry. It was not till I got to his chapter on the French Revolution that I finally realized the genuis of this book. Barzun discussed Napolean's invasion of Egypt, but his focus was not on the battles but on the thinkers Napolean took with and their work which has mostly been forgotten, influential as it was. If you want a history book that tells you history focused on political leaders and war, there are other books. Such books are probably a prerequisite for this one, as Barzun assumes a basic understanding of much of the actual historical events. This book is centered on culture - music and art and literature. Of course, philosophy and politics and economics appear too. But I learned more then I ever cared to know about the history of opera, for example.
The final chapter, where Barzun discusses the present day (well, 1995) is worth the price of the book. We've reached decadence and it is not pleasant.
Overall, highly recommended.
knp4597's review
4.0
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.
voldie's review
5.0
850+ pages of non-diluted joy. The longest book I have ever read, thanks to great number of "read more about it in X" detractions which forced me to read couple of great books in between (and more left in in the queue). The style is great. The brevity is amazing. The scope is broad. The analysis is succinct. What more can we ask for?
smuds2's review
reflective
medium-paced
2.0
I would skip the last quarter of the book if I were you. He is best in this book when talking about 15-19th century. As soon as he starts talking about 20th century he just becomes an old man complaining about youths on his lawn. There is absolutely NO accounting for actual causes of the “degradations” of society. Considering that’s like, his main thesis, it makes for a pretty disappointing book tbh. Like at one point he’s like “politics has gotten so ugly these days, just character attacks” without even MENTIONING the potential causes for it. Just like “things used to be so much more refined” - like, dude, 24hr news coverage as functional propaganda upheld as very cool by the state might have something to do with it - not just “and then around 1915 everyone became savages”
I particularly enjoyed the first two quarters, I thought it was very interesting to see how certain ideas traced, evolved over hundreds of years. Seems a bit simplified, but whaddya gonna do
I particularly enjoyed the first two quarters, I thought it was very interesting to see how certain ideas traced, evolved over hundreds of years. Seems a bit simplified, but whaddya gonna do
lynitab's review
5.0
This a book for the person who thinks that they will not live long enough to learn everything they want to learn. It is huge. It is marvelous. If one looks at the bibliography, it is stunning that any one person could have accessed all this knowledge. This book is 500 hundred year of Western culture, everything from politics, to cookbooks. It took me from October to May to read this book ( of course I put it down for periods or time to read a fast mystery or thriller for a break) but I felt like I had climbed a mental Mt Everest when I finished. If was a single girl, the line that a guy could use to pick me up would be, "Have your read from DAWN TO DECADENCE?". I wish I could give it ten stars