From Dawn to Decadence
by Jacques Barzun, Edward Lewis · first published 2000
71% recommend29% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Sweeping, conversational history of Western cultural life over roughly 500 years, valued for its erudition and for giving context on the world around people and events; suits readers of long-view intellectual history.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"Highly regarded here and abroad for some thirty works of cultural history and criticism, master historian Jacques Barzun has now set down in one continuous narrative the sum of his discoveries and conclusions about the whole of Western culture since 1500.". "In this account, Barzun describes what Western Man wrought from the Renaissance and Reformation down to the present in the double light of its own time and our pressing concerns. He introduces characters and incidents with his usual literary style and grace, bringing to the fore those that have been forgotten or obscured. His compelling
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…author's comments on needing to have a better understanding of the state of the world that surrounded any particular person or event rings true to me. It's one of the reasons I enjoyed Jacques Barzun's From Dawn to Decadence, a sprawling historical account of western civilization from 1500~2000. He deliberately de-emphasizes the exact dates of things, aiming more to show the significant events within the surrounding "mood"…
on “Horizontal History” ↗Barzun's book "From Dawn to Decadence" is pretty good. There's now a cottage industry of pundits talking about "decadence", but they are all just rehashing Barzun.
on “Jacques Barzun and Friend” ↗…than enough justification for anyone to call it "high" culture. If you can't make value judgments about Mozart, Michelangelo, or Shakespeare, that's simply a tragedy. I strongly recommend Barzun's "From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life." To take a direct shot at relativism: I think it's quite possible to justify the West over the last 500 years as the most productive era for art and science in all…
on “Forty Years of 'Civilisation' ” ↗In From Dawn to Decadence, Jacques Barzun mentions in passing the book The Harried Leisure Class, published in 1970. One can probably find it in many college libraries. I remember it as an interesting and cogent book. I am probably…
on “Our parents discovered leisure, we killed it” ↗From Dawn to Decadence by Jacques Barzun is a sweeping account of the past 500 years.
on “The Griffin Warrior Tomb Upends What We Know About the Roots of Mycenae” ↗…quotes James extensively in it, and ties together the overarching themes of his various works with a deft hand. I may be slightly biased here because my jumping-off point for reading James was Barzun’s “From Dawn to Decadence,” a sprawling work that led me to investigate a number of references, but none turned out to be as rewarding as reading William James, who has become a personal hero.
on “William James and the philosophy of pragmatism” ↗…perfect, foundational explanation of how computers work. 2. The Mind: Brain Rules (John Medina) is a fast, well-organized read on the fundamentals of how your brain works (and how to work it). 3. History: From Dawn to Decadence (Jacques Barzun) is a dense but brilliant read on the how the past 500 years made the modern world we live and think in. 4. How to Live: A New Earth (Eckhart Tolle). Don't reject it as 'new age-y'; this…
on “Ask HN: Books Similar to Code by Charles Petzold?” ↗Amazing book, it explains so much about the deep layers of our culture that it can make modern usage of terms seem hollow. For another epic collection of history tidbits for the following period check out From Dawn to Decadence - Jacques Barzun
on “Ask HN: What should I read next?” ↗Jacques Barzun - From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present (2001) The Ancient City by Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges (1864) Intellectuals By Paul Johnson Daniel J. Boorstin - The Discoverers The Great…
on “Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?” ↗What a delight to see Barzun's name here. I read From Dawn to Decadence in 2000 when I was young. It was one of the first books of its kind that I read, and it stuck with me all these years because its style was so bizarre to me - unstructured, meandering, erudite, conversational.…
on “Jacques Barzun, Cultural historian and critic (1980)” ↗…consultant as well while I was doing that. So good they can't ignore you & deep work. How to win friends and influence people. Run Silent, Run Deep. The Communist Manifesto The Christian Manifesto From Dawn to Decadence. Romance of the 7 kingdoms. Life together. There's a big yellow book about the 6 day war, it's very detailed and blow by blow, I can no longer remember its name but it impressed upon me the chance…
on “Ask HN: Life Changing Books?” ↗Just about a few months ago someone recommended "From Dawn to Decadence" here on HN. And I wondered how old this guy is and still doing impressive stuff. I highly recommend the book, even though the title may cause you to have doubts about it as a liberal.
on “Jacques Barzun, Historian and Scholar, Dies at 104” ↗When I saw this book mentioned in From Dawn to Decadence in the context of the 19th century increase in mechanization and loss of free time it struck a cord. I've noticed my own free time activities become increasingly harried as I strive to make my leisure…
on “The Harried Leisure Class” ↗Here's another question: does decadence exist? The physicist would say that it's a meaningless question; the historian -- or politician -- would be well advised not to listen. (Barzun, in From Dawn to Decadence, defined a decadent period as one which has an objective which it wants to reach, which it could reach if it made the sort of changes which it has made in the past, and which it fails to reach nonetheless.…
on “The Risk of Discovery” ↗"When people accept futility and the absurd as normal, the culture is decadent. The term is not a slur; it is a technical label." -- From Dawn to Decadence (2000), Jacques Barzun. Clarification: here the slur is "decadent", not the one mentioned in the article.
on “Professor suspended for saying 那个 nà ge” ↗