‘The man of action is always conscienceless,’ said Goethe, one of Spengler’s two main mentors (the other is Nietzsche). However, in the dramatically changing world of the 21st century, there are resonances which are impossible to ignore. Not surprisingly, The Decline of the West has been in and out of fashion in the academic world, but also in its more popular appeal. Spengler rejected the racism of Nazism, but his strong attitudes (acknowledging, unapologetically, the effect of ‘imperial' individuals on history, whether through military, political or commercial activities) were often characterised as unfailingly right-wing. Both admired and criticised, it had its base in a Germany undergoing severe economic and psychological difficulties, only to be swept aside by the rise of Nazism. Certainly for a generation it was required reading.įirst appearing in Germany (it was finally released in one volume in 1923 and translated into other languages) its reception was coloured by the timing. Inevitably, for such an ambitious work, it has garnered controversy since it first appeared. His breadth of sources and insights of observations and (strongly defined) opinions is fascinating and often persuasive but sometimes contentious. Spengler drew on his broad reading to tell the story, to make the links, to ink in the patterns. Within the context of this map comes the detail. All these civilisations can be seen to emerge and decline in seasonal form depicted in terms of spring, summer, autumn, winter. Spengler offered another division - three distinct phases: Magian (societies dominated by monotheism - Persian as well as Semitic religions), Apollonian (ancient Greece and Rome) and Faustian (the ‘modern Western societies’ of his time). The major cultures he identifies are Babylonian, Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, Mesoamerican (Mayan-Aztec), classical (Greek/Roman), Arabian and Western (European and American).
Of particular interest to him were the characteristics of the separate and distinct cultures (established through developments in science, mathematics and the arts). First and foremost, his intention was to offer a world overview and on that basis to present and discuss the premise that the story of the history of man followed a fundamental pattern wherever on the globe it arose.
His primary view was to reject the established Eurocentric paradigm (ancient/classical, Medieval - and, following the Renaissance - modern) and to take a totally new perspective.
It was a huge undertaking by Oswald Spengler (1880-1936), formerly an unpublished historian and philosopher who set out to radically reconsider history - the rise and fall of world civilisations and their cultures. The Decline of the West - Volume 1 published in 1917, Volume 2 in 1922 - has exercised and challenged opinion ever since.
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