Since its first publication more than eighty years ago The Decline of the West has ranked as one of the most widely read and talked about books of our time. A sweeping account of Western culture by a historian of legendary intellect it is an astonishingly informed forcefully eloquent thrillingly controversial work that advances a world view based on the cyclical rise and fall of civilizations. This abridgment presents the most significant of Oswald Spenglers arguments linked by illuminating explanatory passages. It makes available in one volume a masterpiece of grandscale history and farreaching prophesy that remains essential reading for anyone interested in the factors that determine the course of civilizations. show more