Anybody read "From Dawn to Decadence"

Ivanhoe · #1 (**permalink**) 01-04-2008, 03:53 PM

By Jaques Barzun. Barzun is a talented writer and I have profited from some of his other works. Has anyone read this?

Pilgrim · #2 (**permalink**) 01-04-2008, 11:54 PM

I have the book, or did have it before the move. (Since I unloaded a bunch of books around that time, it's hard to keep track of what I actually have anymore.) It was actually in the New York Times top 10 Nonfiction books for a while when released. I would recommend it, and it isn't organized the way you would expect.

The wiki article has the following on the book:

Quote:

At 84 years of age, he began writing his swan song, to which he devoted the better part of the 1990s. The resulting book of more than 800 pages, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present, reveals a vast erudition and brilliance, undiminished by advanced age. Historians, literary critics, and popular reviewers all lauded From Dawn to Decadence as a sweeping and powerful, albeit idiosyncratic, survey of modern Western history, and it became a New York Times bestseller. The book introduces several novel typographic devices that enable an unusually rich system of cross-referencing, as well as help keep its many strands of thought under organized control. Almost every page features a sidebar containing a pithy quotation from some author or historical figure; most are surprising, little known, and humorous.

Barzun celebrated his 100th birthday in November.

Pilgrim · #3 (**permalink**) 01-04-2008, 11:57 PM

Since it was a bestseller, I'd think it would be possible to obtain an inexpensive used copy that is in relatively good condition.

Ivanhoe · #4 (**permalink**) 01-05-2008, 12:20 AM

I have a copy; have had for a while. I had heard good things of it (frequented the wikipedia article you referenced). While I know a little bit of Medieval history, I don't know too much about post-Reformation secular history up to the present day. Thus my interest.