Prophet of decline

About this book

"Oswald Spengler (1880-1936) is best known for The Decline of the West, in which he propounded his pathbreaking philosophy of world history and penetrating diagnosis of the crisis of modernity." "In Prophet of Decline, John Farrenkopf takes advantage of the perspective the new millennium provides to reassess this visionary thinker and his challenging ideas on history, politics, and modern civilization. Farenkopf's assessment ranges widely, covering Spengler's ideas on democracy, capitalism, science and technology, cities, Western art, social change, and human exploitation of the environment. He also illuminates the implications of Spengler's thought for contemplating from a fresh view-point the future of the United States, the leading power of the West." "Farrenkopf proves that the conventional picture of Spengler as a consistently antidemocratic thinker is not only simplistic, but erroneous. Drawing upon Spengler's private papers, he advances a bold new interpretation of the evolution of Spengler's political thought, uncovering an early phase, in the years before Germany's traumatic defeat in World War I during which Spengler was a conservative advocate of the quasi-democratization of the Second Reich. He examines Spengler's relationship to German historicism, his place in the German traditions of cultural pessimism and Realpolitik, and his critical stance toward Nazism."--Jacket.