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A Masterpiece of Cultural History:
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Jacques Barzun’s “From Dawn to
Decadence”
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By Robert M. Woods | January 9th, 2024 | Categories:
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In the annals of writing history, Weekly
there are a handful of volumes that Newsletter
have become established as models
Name
due to tone, insightful content, and
excellence of style. The most recent
historical work by Jacques Barzun is
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First
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such a work. It is a cultural history of
the highest standard. As a historical in oneofconvenient
volume such email?
scope, From Dawn to Decadence is a Signtightly-woven,
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Lastbelow.
extremely engaging narrative, wealthy with detail and
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interpretative insights.
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From Dawn to Decadence is impressive in both depth
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and breadth. Barzun establishes several themes that he NOW
traces throughout the book. The work is separated into
four epoch eras, each spanning approximately 125 years.
Among the themes explored within the book are some
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which reflect the ideas and habits that have at times
integrated, at other times divided but throughout
shaped western cultural life, Barzun insightfully
identifies abstraction, analysis, emancipation,
individualism, primitivism, secularism, self-
consciousness, specialism, and scientism. However, this
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approach is not taken within an abstract arena. “History
Recent
The Imaginative
is above all concrete and particular, not general and
abstract” (xvi). This erudite author demonstrates this
Conservative?
Praising
truth with several “cross sections” that function as God in
the
windows into a particular moment and place in time. Midst of
Barzun also provides numerous quotes within the Suffering
margins from primary sources which enhance each
chapter. You
Can’t
Eat
The table of contents is below: Pearls
Part I From Luther’s Ninety-five Theses to Boyle’s
Sounding
“Invisible College” Faith:
Conversa
Part II From the Bog and Sand of Versailles to the With a
Tennis Court Baroque
Compose
Part III From Faust, Part I, to the “Nude Descending a
Staircase No. 2” Do you want to get The Imaginative
Conservative
Part IV From “The Great Illusion” to “Western'sCiv
essays
Has sent to youRichard
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Weaver:
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of Piety
The past twenty years has seen an advent of the ”new
history” which frequently fails the test of being good
Listen
history. Barzun is a practitioner of the traditional form of to St
Teresa
cultural history. According to Barzun, “culture is a web of Ávila
of many strands; none is spun by itself,” (ix). It is
because of the intricately connected nature of culture
Do Not
that the author will often relate the ideas to specific Receive
institutions, events, or even manners. the
Grace of
God in
While Barzun does acknowledge some of the everyday Vain
artifacts that have shaped western cultural life, he gives
greater attention to the great revolutions that impacted What Is
Fame?
the western way of life because these revolutions “give
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culture a new face” (3). Employing extraordinarily clear
The Imaginative
and concise prose, Barzun traces the birth, Renewin
development and continued effect of these revolutions. America’
Soul:
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In light of the recent trends to model a corruption of
Faith
and Civil
Society
history with the all too trendy anti-western bias, the
tone of Barzun’s work is refreshingly and typically
Donald
conservative. However, this does not limit him from an Trump
occasional challenge of received “wisdom” especially and
Daniel
related to the late middle ages and early Renaissance. Boorstin’
“The
There are many special insights the reader is exposed to Image”
throughout this work. Barzun skillfully traces the thread
that runs from Luther’s 95 theses to America’s “Me Born for
Friendsh
Decade” of the 1970s. He also keenly observes that the The
Example
foundation of the current consumer culture has its of
Thomas
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roots in the scientific and industrial revolution.
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Barzun is most often gracious even when reflecting on
differing convictions and results. While discussing the
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Eutopias, he contends that the basic flaw is “taking it Chant
for granted that under fair conditions people would be Benefits
the
sensible” (126). On the other hand he praises them “in Body
and
letting wish and fancy roam, this galaxy of writers have
Soul
imagined institutions that are workable” (126).
From Dawn to Decadence is filled with key figures,
Ronald
major social and cultural movements, great books and Reagan’s
ideas with momentous consequences. Barzun Road to
Conserva
demonstrates his immense scholarship as he relates
religious, political, artistic, general cultural, and social
Beauty,
revolutions to the shape of western civilization. This Home,
and the
impressive book being both encyclopedic and
Concert
anecdotal introduces the reader to significant men (and Hall
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yes, many women) who for good and ill influenced their
age.
The Imaginative Recoveri
Faith
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Barzun may give more credit than is appropriate to
certain cultural figures such as Sigmund Freud. Even
Roger
Barzun observes, “note that although the world Scruton
on the
understands what Freud meant by the Oedipus Bureauc
complex, nobody has the slightest notion of how of
Politics
Oedipus felt when he killed his father and married his
mother” (141).
Henry
Adams
Barzun offers a powerful and prophet-like critique of &
the past with prospects of the future. In particular, the Modernit
A
last chapter, “Demotic Life and Times,” describes a Philosop
of
culture tragically drifting into the abyss. “In attempting
History
a sketch of a culture at its close, the elements to look for Our
Times
Do you want to get The Imaginative
for may be classed under the headings of style and
society, style meaning the Conservative 's essays sent to you weekly
choices made by individuals,
in one convenient email?Josef
and society meaning the ways of institutions” (773). Pieper
Sign up by entering your email below. and the
Among the many markers of the demotic in our current End
Times
moment, the clearest sign of the demotic style is
related to clothing. “The Unfitting appealed to the
How
young but was not their monopoly. A sample of the Much
Exactly
casual style among adults had been to sport a business
Do I
suit at the opera; this expanded into the open collar and Have to R
Unto Cae
no tie or jerseys and T-shirts almost anywhere, even in
church” (782). The slide from the internal, introspective,
character moves to the momentarily temporal and the
The
easily changed external.
Barzun accurately describes the demotic society as a
society overseen by bureaucrats, inhabited by
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conservative is
consumers who are shaped by a dominate therapeutic
concerned, first of all,
The Imaginative
consciousness. This society is amused by journalism
with the
qua entertainment and en masse has shifted from the
regeneration of the
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concrete to the virtual via the Internet.
spirit and character
—with the perennial
In addition to the sign of clothing as a marker of the
demotic spirit is the obviously diminished language. problem of the inner
“The demotic languages were decadent because verbal order of the soul, the
inflation and misusage interfered with vigor, precision, restoration of the
and clarity. Correctness had ceased to be recognized; it ethical
was, on the contrary, denounced” (792, 793). understanding, and
the religious
However, all is not lost. Barzun concludes on a more sanction upon which
futuristically projected hopeful note by imagining, any life worth living
“What saved the masses from brutishness was the is founded. This is
survival (though in odd shapes) of a good deal of conservatism at its
Do you want to get Thehighest.
literature and history from 500 years of western culture,
Imaginative
– Russell
Conservative
mingled with a sizeable infusion of the eastern”'s(800).
essays sentKirkto you weekly
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Indeed some may find fault with the balance of the
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book giving greater attention to the first 300 years and
less toward the last 200, it may simply be due to the
fact that the decadent end of a civilization is more
burdensome to chronicle than the glorious dawn of
that civilization.
Barzun generally treats religion respectfully, his own
convictions are apparent when it comes to the place
divine providence may have in the unfolding of human
cultural history. “Acting together with character,
circumstance accounts for the chaos of history, and its
unpredictable twists and turns, which cannot always be
referred to motives” (136).
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While being impressive in scope, over 800 pages of text,
The Imaginative
this history book may indeed be a tad overwhelming for
some readers. The explanation for the size and scope of
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the work may be found within the book itself. Barzun
provides a simple definition of the Renaissance man in
the fullest sense of that term, as one who is “concerned
with everything in the universe” (141). Using his own
definition, Barzun is a true Renaissance man who has
given us a masterpiece of cultural history for renewed
reflection.
This essay was first published here in August 2011.
The Imaginative Conservative applies the principle of
appreciation to the discussion of culture and politics—
we approach dialogue with magnanimity rather than
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The featured image (detail) is “Les Romains de la
décadence” (1847), a painting by Thomas Couture in
the Musée d’Orsay, Paris. This file is licensed under
the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0
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About the Author: Robert M. Woods
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Robert M. Woods is the Headmaster at the
Covenant School in Dallas, Texas, and
teaches in the graduate program at
Faulkner University. His work has been published in
several journals and he writes regularly for his website
Musings of a Christian Humanist.
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One Comment
Gordon S Jones Jan 13, 2024 at 1:36 pm - Reply
I have for years assigned Barzun as a core
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reading for my students in my Development of
Civilization courseConservative 's essays sent to you weekly
at Mount Liberty College.
in 1990.
But D to D runs only up to about oneCanconvenient email?
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anyone suggest something of comparable
quality to cover the last 30 years? Surely there
must be someone writing with Barzun’s depth
of knowledge and even-handed clarity of
vision.
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