Prophet of Decline: Spengler on World History and Politics

Couverture
LSU Press, 1 juin 2001 - 328 pages

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. This monumental work launched a seminal attack on the idea of progress and supplanted the outmoded Eurocentric understanding of history. His provocative pessimism seems to be confirmed in retrospect by the twentieth-century horrors of economic depression, totalitarianism, genocide, the dawn of the nuclear age, and the emerging global environmental crisis.
In Prophet of Decline, John Farrenkopf takes advantage of the historical perspective the end of the millennium provides to reassess this visionary thinker and his challenging ideas on world history and politics and modern civilization. Farrenkopf's assessment ranges widely, placing Spengler's philosophy in its intellectual historical context and 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 perspective the future of the United States, the leading power of the West.
Prophet of Decline is highly relevant today as many take the opportunity at the turn of the century to ponder again the direction in which humankind and our global community are moving and approach with concern the uncertain future amid globalization, hypercomplexity, and accelerating change. An interdisciplinary book about an interdisciplinary thinker, it is a substantial contribution to the literature of historical philosophy, political science, international relations, and German studies.

 

Table des matières

Heraclitus the Dark One
5
Spengler and
77
Diverse Intellectual
91
The Transformation of Spenglers Political
113
Spengler the NeoRankeans and
133
Prussianism and Socialism and the Faustian
145
Spenglers Political Phase in the Twenties
166
A Reassessment
188
The Transformation of Spenglers Philosophy
214
Spengler and the Approaching Second
234
Spengler and Political Realism
269
Index
291
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À propos de l'auteur (2001)

An independent scholar, John Farrenkopf lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. The author of numerous articles, he has spent several years conducting research in Germany and has taught at the University of Virginia and Northwestern University.

An independent scholar, John Farrenkopf lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. The author of numerous articles, he has spent several years conducting research in Germany and has taught at the University of Virginia and Northwestern University.

Informations bibliographiques