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'‘This astonishing and monumental work may fairly take its place alongside Gibbon, and for much the same array of qualities: a majestic view of five hundred years of history, done in great style, with vast erudition and a continuously entertaining idiosyncrasy of judgement’
ALISTAIR COOKE
‘To define Western culture is the most delicate and difficult of all operations. Jacques Barzun is one of the most cultivated exemplars of Western civilization and his book contains the experience and the reflection of a lifetime. He tells us not to judge past centuries by our standards and to recognize that, however different, those centuries have made us what we are.’
NOEL ANNAN
‘Jacques Barzun’s summa is the work of a very great historian and of a seer. The phrase from the Bible in apposite: “The hearing ear, and the seeing eye” is his great gift – and a gift to his readers.’
JOHN LUKACS
‘From Dawn to Decadence is a personal, witty, learned, bold, and above all wise retrospect of the past half-millennium. One will read it through with mounting interest, and then go back again and again to savour favourite parts of it’
GERTRUDE HIMMELFARB
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. 1st Edition. STUNNING: BRILLIANT: INSPIRING: MAGNIFICENT: NEW First Edition hardcover (orig. 2000) First Printing, NEW unclipped mylar-protected jacket w/ sharp NEW edges & corners & showing orig. $36.00 pub. price top-right inside-front flyleaf, IMMACULATE smooth-cut text-block exterior, IMPECCABLE cream-white card-stock end-papers, NEW perfect binding w/ tight signatures & b-w-checked cloth bands at spine-caps, PRISTINE interior handsomely printed on EXCELLENT unblemished paper * 6.36" x 9.50" x 2.04", 1.40 kg, xvii+877 (891) pp. * ABOUT THE BOOK: "A stunning five-century study of civilization's cultural retreat." - William Safire, New York Times * Highly regarded here & abroad for some 30 works of cultural history & criticism, master historian Jacques Barzun has now set down in one continuous narrative the sum of his discoveries & conclusion about the whole of Western culture & civilization since 1500. In this account, Barzun describes what Western man wrought from the Renaissance & Reformation down to the present in the double light of its own time & our pressing concerns. He introduces characters & incidents w/ his usual literary style & grace, bringing to the fore those that have been forgotten or obscured. His compelling chapters ("Puritans as Democrats", "The Monarch's Revolution", "The Artist Prophet & Jester") show the recurrent role of great themes throughout the eras. The triumphs & defeats of 500 years form an inspiring saga that modifies the current impression of one long tale of oppression by white European males. Women & their deeds are prominent, & freedom (even in sexual matters) is not an invention of the last decades. And when Barzun rates the present not as a culmination but as a decline, he is in no way a prophet of doom. Instead, he shows decadence as the normal close of great periods & 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 w/ such ease the brilliant synthesis displayed in this magnificent volume. * SHIPPING: MNEMOSYNE carefully wraps, labels & custom-packages this fine book for FREE domestic shipment via USPS MEDIA MAIL or USPS PRIORITY MAIL for a below-cost additional fee & via USPS FIRST CLASS INTERNATIONAL AIRMAIL to international destinations at our posted rates. Seller Inventory # 010413
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