From Dawn to Decadence
From Dawn to Decadence
Summary
The bestselling (New York Times No. 3) history chronicling half a millennium of Western culture.
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From Dawn to Decadence by Jacques Barzun
The bestselling (New York Times No. 3) history chronicling half a millennium of Western culture. From Dawn To Decadence is the French-American historian Jacques Barzun’s great opus. It is the product of a lifetime of separate studies which he now sets down in one powerful narrative, interspersing his entertaining analysis of wars, philosophy, science, manners, sex, religion, morals, art, et al, from the Reformation to the present day, with biographical sketches of influential historical figures (including Luther, Charles V, Descartes, Bacon, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Cromwell, Peter the Great, Defoe, Swift, Rubens, Bach, Byron, Pascal, Florence Nightingale, James Joyce…) His positive conclusion is that the decadence of the current age is merely a watershed for a new age in which Western culture will again flourish. This is heavyweight history written with great wit and verve, comparable in scope with the Big Ideas and Big Themes history of Paul Kennedy’s Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, which was a huge bestseller that was first ‘made’ in the US, and Paul Johnson (The Birth of the Modern; Intellectuals; Twentieth Century Britain). With Barzun’s lucid and easy style it is also a very accesible book which will be eagerly devoured by history and culture lovers alike.'‘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
Jacques Barzun was born in France in 1907 and moved to the US in 1920. After graduating from Columbia University he joined its faculty as Professor of History, becoming Dean of Faculties and Provost. The author of over thirty books he received the Gold Medal for Criticism from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, of which he was twice president.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780007115501 |
| ISBN 10 | 0007115504 |
| Title | From Dawn to Decadence |
| Author | Jacques Barzun |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Harpercollins Publishers Ltd |
| Year published | 2001-12-03 |
| Number of pages | 896 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |