Oswald Spengler

after the wedding),[5] one of whom was Gustav Adolf

Grantzow (181183)a solo dancer and ballet master
in Berlin, who married Katharina Kirchner (181373), a
nervously beautiful solo dancer from a Munich Catholic
family;[6] one of their daughters was Oswald Spenglers
mother Pauline Grantzow.[7] Like the Grantzows in general, Pauline was of a Bohemian disposition, and, before
marrying Bernhard Spengler, accompanied her dancer
sister on tours. She was the least talented member of the
Grantzow family. In appearance, she was plump and a
bit unseemly. Her temperament, which Oswald inherited, complemented her appearance and frail physique:
she was moody, irritable, and morose.[8]

Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler (29 May 1880 8

May 1936) was a German historian and philosopher of
history whose interests included mathematics, science,
and art. He is best known for his book The Decline of
the West (Der Untergang des Abendlandes), published in
1918 and 1922, covering all of world history. Spenglers
civilization model postulates that any civilization is a
superorganism with a limited lifespan.
He wrote extensively throughout World War I and the
interwar period, and supported German hegemony in Europe. His other writings made little impact outside Germany. In 1920 Spengler produced Prussiandom and Socialism (Preuentum und Sozialismus), which argued for
an organic, nationalist brand of socialism and authoritarianism. Some Nazis, including Joseph Goebbels, saw
Spengler as an intellectual precursor, but he was ultimately ostracised by the Nazis in 1933 for his pessimism
about the future of Germany and Europe, his refusal to
support Nazi ideas of racial superiority, and his critical
work The Hour of Decision.

When Oswald was ten years of age, his family moved to

the university city of Halle. Here he received a classical education at the local Gymnasium (academically oriented secondary school), studying Greek, Latin, mathematics and sciences. Here, too, he developed his propensity for the artsespecially poetry, drama, and music
and came under the inuence of the ideas of Goethe and
Nietzsche. He even experimented with a few artistic creations, some of which still survive.
After his fathers death in 1901 Spengler attended several universities (Munich, Berlin, and Halle) as a private scholar, taking courses in a wide range of subjects.
His private studies were undirected. In 1903, he failed
his doctoral thesis on Heraclitus because of insucient
references, which eectively ended his chances of an
academic career. In 1904 he received his Ph.D., and in
1905 suered a nervous breakdown.

Biography

Oswald Spengler was born in 1880 in Blankenburg (the

Duchy of Brunswick, the German Reich) as the second
child of Bernhard (18441901) and Pauline (18401910)
Spengler.[1] Oswalds elder brother was born prematurely
(eight months) in 1879, when his mother tried to move
a heavy laundry basket, and died three weeks after birth.
Biographers report his life as a teacher was uneventful.
Oswald was born ten months after his brothers death.[2]
He briey served as a teacher in Saarbrcken and then in
His younger sisters were Adele (18811917), Gertrud
Dsseldorf. From 1908 to 1911 he worked at a grammar
(18821957), and Hildegard (18851942).
school (Realgymnasium) in Hamburg, where he taught
Oswalds patrilineal grandfather, Theodor Spengler science, German history, and mathematics.
(180676), was a metallurgical inspector (HtteninspekIn 1911, following his mothers death, he moved to
tor) in Altenbrak.[3] Oswalds father, Bernhard Spengler,
Munich, where he would live until his death in 1936. He
held the position of a postal secretary (Postsekretr) and
lived as a cloistered scholar, supported by his modest inwas a hard-working man with a marked dislike of intelheritance. Spengler survived on very limited means and
lectualism, who tried to instil the same values and attiwas marked by loneliness. He owned no books, and took
tudes in his son.
jobs as a tutor or wrote for magazines to earn additional
On 26 May 1799, Friedrich Wilhelm Grantzow, a tai- income.
lors apprentice in Berlin, married a Jewish woman named
He began work on the rst volume of Decline of the West
Brunchen Moses (whose parents, Abraham and Reile
intending at rst to focus on Germany within Europe, but
Moses, were both deceased by that time). Shortly bethe Agadir Crisis of 1911 aected him deeply, and he
fore the wedding, Brunchen Moses (ca. 17691849)
widened the scope of his study. Spengler was inspired by
was baptized as Johanna Elisabeth Anspachin (the surOtto Seeck's work The Decline of Antiquity in naming his
[4]
name was chosen after her birthplaceAnspach). The
own eort.
couple gave birth to eight children (three before and ve
1

3 AFTERMATH
At that time the World-War appeared to
me both as imminent and also as the inevitable
outward manifestation of the historical crisis,
and my endeavor was to comprehend it from
an examination of the spirit of the preceding centuriesnot years. ... Thereafter I saw
the presentthe approaching World-Warin
a quite other light. It was no longer a momentary constellation of casual facts due to national sentiments, personal inuences, or economic tendencies endowed with an appearance of unity and necessity by some historians
scheme of political or social cause-and-eect,
but the type of a historical change of phase occurring within a great historical organism of
denable compass at the point preordained for
it hundreds of years ago.
Spengler, Oswald The Decline
of the West v. 1, 1926, Alfred A.
Knopf, pp. 4647

The book was completed in 1914, but publishing was delayed by World War I. Due to a congenital heart problem,
Spengler was not called up for military service. During
the war, however, his inheritance was largely useless because it was invested overseas; thus he lived in genuine
poverty for this period.

mysticism were easy targets, especially for the Positivists

and neo-Kantians who saw no meaning in history. The
critic and sthete Count Harry Kessler thought him unoriginal and rather inane, especially in regard to his opinion on Nietzsche. Ludwig Wittgenstein, however, shared
Spenglers cultural pessimism. Spenglers work became
an important foundation for the social cycle theory.

2.1 Impact
His book was a success among intellectuals worldwide
as it predicted the disintegration of European and American civilization after a violent age of Caesarism", arguing by detailed analogies with other civilizations. It
deepened the post-World War I pessimism in Europe.[9]
German Kantian philosopher Ernst Cassirer explained
that at the end of World War I, Spenglers very title was
enough to iname imaginations: At this time many, if
not most of us, had realized that something was rotten in
the state of our highly prized Western civilization. Spenglers book expressed in a sharp and trenchant way this
general uneasiness.[10] Northrop Frye argued that while
every element of Spenglers thesis has been refuted a
dozen times, it is one of the worlds great Romantic poems and its leading ideas are as much part of our mental
outlook today as the electron or the dinosaur, and in that
sense we are all Spenglerians.[11]

Spenglers pessimistic predictions about the inevitable decline of the West inspired Third World intellectuals, rang2 The Decline of the West (1918)
ing from China and Korea to Chile, eager to identify the
fall of western imperialism.[12][13] In Britain and AmerMain article: The Decline of the West
ica, however, Spenglers pessimism was later countered
by the optimism of Arnold J. Toynbee in London,[14] who
history in the 1940s with a greater stress on
When The Decline of the West was published in the sum- wrote world
[15]
[lower-alpha 1]
religion.
mer of 1918, it was a wild success.
The perceived national humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles
(1919) and later the economic depression around 1923
fueled by hyperination seemed to prove Spengler right. 3 Aftermath
It comforted Germans because it seemingly rationalized
their downfall as part of larger world-historical processes.
A 1928 Time review of the second volume of Decline
The book met with wide success outside of Germany as described the immense inuence and controversy Spenwell, and by 1919 had been translated into several other
glers ideas enjoyed during the 1920s: When the rst
languages. Spengler rejected a subsequent oer to be- volume of The Decline of the West appeared in Germany
come Professor of Philosophy at the University of Gt- a few years ago, thousands of copies were sold. Cultivated
tingen, saying he needed time to focus on writing.
European discourse quickly became Spengler-saturated.
The book was widely discussed, even by those who had
not read it. Historians took umbrage at his unapologetically non-scientic approach. Thomas Mann compared reading Spenglers book to reading Schopenhauer
for the rst time. Academics gave it a mixed reception.
Max Weber described Spengler as a very ingenious and
learned dilettante, while Karl Popper called the thesis
pointless.

Spenglerism spurted from the pens of countless disciples.

It was imperative to read Spengler, to sympathize or revolt. It still remains so.[16]

In the second volume, published in 1922, Spengler argued that German socialism diered from Marxism, and
was in fact compatible with traditional German conservatism. In 1924, following the social-economic upheaval
and ination, Spengler entered politics in an eort to
The great historian of antiquity Eduard Meyer thought bring Reichswehr general Hans von Seeckt to power as
highly of Spengler, although he also had some criti- the countrys leader. The attempt failed and Spengler
cisms of him. Spenglers obscurity, intuitionalism, and proved ineective in practical politics.

3
In 1931, he published Man and Technics, which warned
against the dangers of technology and industrialism to culture. He especially pointed to the tendency of Western
technology to spread to hostile Colored races which
would then use the weapons against the West. It was
poorly received because of its anti-industrialism. This
book contains the well-known Spengler quote Optimism
is cowardice.
Despite voting for Hitler over Hindenburg in 1932, Spengler found the Fhrer vulgar. He met Hitler in 1933 and
after a lengthy discussion remained unimpressed, saying
that Germany did not need a heroic tenor [Heldentenor:
one of several conventional tenor classications] but a
real hero [Held]". He quarreled publicly with Alfred
Rosenberg, and his pessimism and remarks about the
Fhrer resulted in isolation and public silence. He further rejected oers from Joseph Goebbels to give public
speeches. However, Spengler did become a member of
the German Academy in the course of the year.
The Hour of Decision, published in 1934, was a bestseller, but the Nazis later banned it for its critiques of
National Socialism. Spenglers criticisms of liberalism[17]
were welcomed by the Nazis, but Spengler disagreed with
their biological ideology and anti-Semitism. While racial
mysticism played a key role in his own worldview, Spengler had always been an outspoken critic of the pseudoscientic racial theories professed by the Nazis and many
others in his time, and was not inclined to change his
views upon Hitlers rise to power. Although himself a
German nationalist, Spengler viewed the Nazis as too narrowly German, and not occidental enough to lead the ght
against other peoples. The book also warned of a coming world war in which Western Civilization risked being destroyed, and was widely distributed abroad before
eventually being banned in Germany. A Time review of
The Hour of Decision noted his international popularity
as a polemicist, observing that When Oswald Spengler
speaks, many a Western Worldling stops to listen. The
review recommended the book for readers who enjoy
vigorous writing, who will be glad to be rubbed the
wrong way by Spenglers harsh aphorisms and his pessimistic predictions.[18]
In his private papers, Spengler denounced Nazi antiSemitism in even stronger terms, writing and how much
envy of the capability of other people in view of ones
lack of it lies hidden in anti-Semitism!" and that when
one would rather destroy business and scholarship than
see Jews in them, one is an ideologue, i.e., a danger for
the nation. Idiotic.[19]

Final years

Spengler spent his nal years in Munich, listening to

Beethoven, reading Molire and Shakespeare, buying
several thousand books, and collecting ancient Turkish,

Persian and Hindu weapons. He made occasional trips to

the Harz mountains, and to Italy. In the spring of 1936
(shortly before his death), he prophetically remarked in
a letter to Reichsleiter Hans Frank that in ten years, the
German Reich will probably no longer exist ("da ja wohl
in zehn Jahren ein Deutsches Reich nicht mehr existieren
wird!").[20] He died of a heart attack on May 8, 1936, in
Munich, three weeks before his 56th birthday and exactly
nine years before the fall of the Third Reich.

5 Inuence
When Malcolm Cowley in 1938 polled leading American intellectuals on the nonction book that had given
them the greatest jolt, Spengler came in fth behind
Thorstein Veblen, Charles A. Beard, John Dewey, and
Sigmund Freud. He was tied with Alfred North Whitehead and ahead of Lenin and I. A. Richards.[21]
Spengler inuenced two major European philosophers: Martin Heidegger[22] and Ludwig Wittgenstein.[23]
American authors inuenced by Spengler include Ernest Hemingway, Willa Cather,[24] Henry
Miller,[25] John dos Passos, and F. Scott Fitzgerald,[26] who once referred to himself as an American Spenglerian.
Numerous British writers, such as H. G. Wells,[27] as
well as novelist Malcolm Lowry were inuenced by
Spengler. William Butler Yeats acknowledges there
were striking coincidences but says he got them independently of Spengler.[28]
Many Germans and Austrians were inuenced
including painter Oskar Kokoschka, conductor
Wilhelm Furtwngler, and lmmaker Fritz Lang.
In Latin America, intellectuals and writers were especially drawn to Spenglers argument that implied
Europe was in terminal decline.[29]
Communal readings of The Decline of the West held
great inuence over the founding members of the
Beat Generation. Spenglers vision of the cyclical
nature of civilization and the contemporaneity of
the end of the Western European cycle led William
S. Burroughs, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg to
look for the seeds of the next cycle in the communities of which they were a part.[30]
Spenglers concept of the Faustian outlook was an
important part of Herman Kahn's book The Year
2000. Kahn used the Spenglerian term to describe
cultures that value continual, restless striving.[31]
Francis Parker Yockey claimed Spengler was a pivotal inuence on him and wrote Imperium as a sequel to The Decline of the West. Yockey called

6
Spengler The Philosopher of the Twentieth Century. However, Yockeys philosophy, and especially his vehement anti-Semitism, diered heavily
from Spenglers, who criticised anti-Semitism and
racialism much in the same vein as his own inuence Friedrich Nietzsche had...Drawing from Spenglers thesis, Yockey maintains that in the long run it
would have been better for Europe if World War II
had gone the other way.[32]

SPENGLERS WORKS

There are indications that interest in Spengler is being

rekindled.[46][47][48]
Spenglers pessimism did not go unchallenged. In the
July 10, 1920 issue of The Illustrated London News, G.
K. Chesterton took issue with pessimists (without mentioning Spengler by name) and their optimistic critics, arguing that neither took into consideration human choice:
The pessimists believe that the cosmos is a clock that is
running down; the progressives believe it is a clock that
they themselves are winding up. But I happen to believe
that the world is what we choose to make it, and that we
are what we choose to make ourselves; and that our renascence or our ruin will alike, ultimately and equally,
testify with a trumpet to our liberty.[49]

Literary critic Northrop Frye said he practically

slept [with The Decline of the West] under my pillow
for several years while a student. Spenglers book
inspired Frye to have his own vision of coherence,
resulting in Anatomy of Criticism.[33] Frye later criticized the over-reading of Spenglers metaphorical Answering Spenglers pessimism helped animate Arnold
system as actual history rather than an organizing J. Toynbee's similarly themed work A Study of Hisprinciple.[34]
tory. He was optimistic where Spengler was pessimistic.
In his book World of Wonders, writer Robertson He expanded Spenglers theory into a fully cyclical
Davies has narrator Magnus Eisengrim refer to one and replaced Spenglers cultures with nations or
[50]
Spenglers conception that the Middle Ages had a societies.
Magian World View, the view that the world was
lled with wonders. So the title itself is Davies nod
to Spengler.[35]
Spenglers ideas parallel those of Samuel P. Huntington's clash of civilizations theory.[36]
James Blish's Cities in Flight tetralogy explicitly lists
Spenglers theories as an inuence on the future history of the Cities.[37]
The late paleoconservative political theorist Samuel
T. Francis cited Spenglers views on race as inuential on his own.[38][39]
The Hour of Decision inuenced Malcolm Xs views
on economics and his critiques of capitalism. He
agreed with Spenglers prediction that class conict would eventually be surpassed by racial conict.
When asked about Karl Marx, Malcolm X (who had
never read Marx) stated that he agreed with Spenglers view of social class and economic systems as
secondary to racial identity.[40][41][42]

6 Spenglers works
Der metaphysische Grundgedanke der Heraklitischen Philosophie [The metaphysical idea of Heraclitus philosophy] (in German), 1904
Der Untergang des Abendlandes: Umrisse einer
Morphologie der Weltgeschichte [The Decline of the
West: Outlines of a Morphology of world history],
Gestalt und Wirklichkeit; Welthistorische Perspektives (in German), 191822, 2 vols. The Decline
of the West; an Abridged Edition by Helmut Werner
(tr. by F. Atkinson).[51][52]
On the Style-Patterns of Culture. In Talcott
Parsons, ed., Theories of Society, Vol. II, The
Free Press of Glencoe, 1961.
Preussentum und Sozialismus, 1920 (Prussianism
and Socialism).

In January 2000, David P. Goldman began writing a

column for Asia Times Online under the pseudonym
Spengler. He revealed his identity in April 2009.

Pessimismus?, G. Stilke, 1921.

Traces of Spenglers philosophy can be found in the

works of Canadian novelist Gabrielle Roy.[43]

Die Revolution ist nicht zu Ende, c. 1924.

Certain deep ecologist and green anarchist thinkers

such as Paul Kingsnorth, John Zerzan and Derrick
Jensen have cited Spengler as an inuence when discussing the downfall of civilization and the overcoming of the natural world against man-made
civilization.[44]
Comparative mythologist and mystic Joseph Campbell cited Spengler as an inuence when describing
the universality of myths among cultures.[45]

Neubau des deutschen Reiches, 1924.

Politische Pichten der deutschen Jugend; rede

gehalten am 26. februar 1924 vor dem Hochschulring deutscher art in Wrzburg, 1925.
Der Mensch und die Technik, 1931 (Man and Technics: A Contribution to a Philosophy of Life, tr. C.
T. Atkinson, Knopf, 1932).[53][54][55]
Die Revolution ist nicht zu Ende, 1932.
Politische Schriften, 1932.

5
Jahre der Entscheidung, 1933 (The Hour of Decision
tr. CF Atkinson).[56]
Reden und Aufstze, 1937 (ed. by Hildegard Kornhardt) Selected Essays (tr. Donald O. White).
Gedanken, c. 1941 (ed. by Hildegard Konrnhardt) Aphorisms (translated by Gisela KochWeser OBrien).
Briefe, 19131936, 1963 [The Letters of Oswald
Spengler, 19131936] (ed. and tr. by A. Helps).

[8] Fischer, Klaus P. History and Prophecy: Oswald Spengler and The Decline of the West P. Lang, 1989, p. 27

Frhzeit der Weltgeschichte: Fragmente aus dem

Nachlass, 1966 (ed. by A. M. Kortanek and Manfred Schrter).

[10] Ernst Cassirer; Anne Applebaum (1974) [1946]. The

Myth of the State. Chelsea, Michigan. p. 289.

See also

Carroll Quigley
Fernand Braudel
Intermediate Region
Spenglers civilization model

Notes

[1] The original Preface is dated December, 1917 and ends

with Spengler expressing hope that his book would not
be unworthy of the German military achievements.

[7] Spengler, Oswald (2007). Ich beneide jeden, der lebt [I

envy anyone who lives] (in German). Lilienfeld. p. 126.

[9] D. G. Bridson (2014). The Filibuster: A Study of the Political Ideas of Wyndham Lewis. A&C Black. p. 78.

Arnold J. Toynbee

[6] Koktanek, Anton Mirko Oswald Spengler in seiner Zeit

Beck, 1968, p. 5

Urfragen; Fragmente aus dem Nachlass, 1965 (ed.

by Anton Mirko Koktanek and Manfred Schrter).

Der Briefwechsel zwischen Oswald Spengler und

Wolfgang E. Groeger: ber russische Literatur, Zeitgeschichte und soziale Fragen, 1987 (ed. by Xenia
Werner).

[5] Awerbuch, Marianne; Jersch-Wenzel, Ste (1992). Bild

und Selbstbild der Juden Berlins zwischen Aufklrung und
Romantik [Image and self-image of the Jews of Berlin between the Enlightenment and Romanticism] (in German).
Berlin: Colloquium. p. 91.

References

[1] Preussische Jahrbcher v. 192, issue 93, Georg Stilke,

1923, p. 130
[2] Koktanek, Anton Mirko Oswald Spengler in seiner Zeit
Beck, 1968, p. 10

[11] Northrop Frye (2003). Northrop Frye on Modern Culture.

University of Toronto Press. p. 305.
[12] Prasenjit Duara (2001). The Discourse of Civilization
and Pan-Asianism.. Journal of World History 12 (1):
99130.
[13] Neil McInnes (1997). The Great Doomsayer: Oswald
Spengler Reconsidered. The National Interest (48): 65
76.
[14] James Joll (1985). Two Prophets of the Twentieth Century: Spengler and Toynbee. Review of International
Studies 11 (2).
[15] Levi, Albert William (1959). History and Destiny: Oswald Spengler and Arnold Toynbee. In Philosophy and
the Modern World, Part II, Chap. IV, Indiana University
Press
[16] Patterns in Chaos. Time Magazine. 10 December 1928.
Retrieved 9 August 2008.
[17] Tate, Allen (1934). Spenglers Tract Against Liberalism, The American Review April 1934.
[18] Spengler Speaks. Time Magazine. 12 February 1934.
Retrieved 9 August 2008.
[19] Farrenkopf 2001, pp. 23738.
[20] Bronder, Dietrich (1964). Bevor Hitler kam: eine historische Studie [Before Hitler came: a historical study] (in
German). Pfeier. p. 25.
[21] John P. Diggins (1978). Thorstein Veblen: Theorist of the
Leisure Class. Princeton University Press. p. 213.
[22] Tom Rockmore (1997). On Heideggers Nazism and Philosophy. University of California Press. p. 219.
[23] Klagge, James Carl (2011). Wittgenstein in Exile. MIT
Press. p. 166.

[3] Koktanek, Anton Mirko Oswald Spengler in seiner Zeit

Beck, 1968, pp. 3, 517

[24] Cather Studies. University of Nebraska Press. 1993. pp.

92117.

[4] Koktanek, Anton Mirko Oswald Spengler in seiner Zeit

Beck, 1968, p. 5

[25] Manniste, Indrek (2013). Henry Miller: The Inhuman

Artist: A Philosophical Inquiry. A&C Black. p. 10.

[26] Matthew J. Bruccoli; Judith Baughman (2004).

Conversations with F. Scott Fitzgerald. University Press
of Mississippi. p. 83.
[27] Scheick, William J (1975), The Womb of Time: Spenglers Inuence on Wellss Apropos of Dolores, English
Literature in Transition, 18801920 18 (4): 21728

11 FURTHER READING

[44] (1/3) John Zerzan Interview for Yu Koyo Peya on

YouTube
[45] Joseph Campbell (2011). Myths to Live By. Joseph Campbell Foundation. p. 48.

[28] Cormack, Alistair (2008). Yeats and Joyce: Cyclical History and the Reprobate Tradition. Ashgate. pp. 13334.

[46] Borthwick, SM (2011). Decline of Civilization: WB

Yeats and Oswald Spenglers New Historiography of Civilization. Comparative Civilizations Review (=MI, USA:
ISCSC) 64: 2237.

[29] Ricardo Roque-Baldovinos, The 'Epic Novel': Charismatic Nationalism and the Avant-garde in Latin America, Cultural Critique (2001) 49#1 5883 esp p. 63

[47] McNaughton, DL (2012). Spenglers Philosophy, and its

implication that Europe has 'lost its way'". Comparative
Civilizations Review (MI, USA: ISCSC) 67: 715.

[30] Elkholy, Sharin N (2012). The Philosophy of the Beats.

University Press of Kentucky. p. 208.

[48] Farrenkopf, John (2001), Prophet of Decline: Spengler on

world history and politics, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University Press, pp. 1290, ISBN 0-8071-2653-5

[31] Etulain, Richard W; Szasz, Ferenc Morton (2003). The

American West in 2000: Essays in Honor of Gerald D.
Nash. UNM Press. p. 165.
[32] Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (2003). Black Sun: Aryan
Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity. New
York UP. p. 75.
[33] Frye, Northrop (2003). Gorak, Jan, ed. Northrop Frye on
Modern Culture. U. of Toronto Press. p. 34.
[34] Frye, Northrop (1984). New Directions From Old. Fables of identity: studies in poetic mythology. San Diego:
Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. p. 54. ISBN 0-15-6297302.
[35] Moss, John (1983). The Canadian Novel: A Critical Anthology. Dundurn Press. p. 77.
[36] Bhutto, Benazir (2008). Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West. HarperCollins. p. 234.
[37] James Blish (2005). Cities in Flight. Penguin. p. 313.
[38] Samuel T. Francis (Feb 2005) [September 1994], Why
Race Matters, American Renaissance
[39] Francis, Samuel (March 1995), Prospects for Racial and
Cultural Survival, American Renaissance
[40] Malcolm X (1992). By any means necessary (2 ed.).
Pathnder. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-87348-759-7. And one
further comment is this: as I said, I don't know too much
about Karl Marx, but there was this man who wrote The
Decline of the West, Spengler he had another book
thats a little lesser known, called The Hour of Decision
[41] Franklin, Robert Michael (1990). Liberating visions: human fulllment and social justice in African-American
thought. Fortress Press. p. 99. ISBN 978-0-8006-23920.
[42] Young, William H. (2010). Ordering America. Xlibris.
p. 407. ISBN 978-1-4535-1663-8. In The Hour of Decision (1934), Spengler predicted that class conict would
eventually be surpassed by racial conict, a view adopted
much later by Malcolm X
[43] Hardy, Stephan (2001), Oswald Spengler et Gabrielle
Roy: quelques pistes de lecture [Oswald Spengler and
Gabrielle Roy: some reading cues], Cahiers francocanadiens de l'Ouest (in French) (CA) 13 (2): 14356

[49] Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1989) [1920]. The Collected

Works. Ignatius Press. p. 55.
[50] Hughes, H Stuart (1991). Oswald Spengler. Transaction
Publishers. p. 140.
[51] Falke, Konrad. A Historians Forecast, The Living Age,
Vol. 314, September 1922.
[52] Stewart, W. K. (1924). The Decline of Western Culture, The Century Magazine, Vol. CVIII, No. 5.
[53] Mumford, Lewis (1932). The Decline of Spengler, The
New Republic, March 9.
[54] Dewey, John (1932). Instrument or Frankenstein?, The
Saturday Review, March 12.
[55] Vasilkovsky, G. Oswald Spenglers 'Philosophy of Life',
The Communist, April 1932.
[56] Reis, Lincoln (1934). Spengler Declines the West, The
Nation, February 28.

10 Bibliography
Farrenkopf, John (2001), Prophet of Decline: Spengler on world history and politics, Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press, ISBN 0-80712653-5

11 Further reading
Theodor W. Adorno Prisms. Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press 1967.
Jerry H. Bentley Shapes of World History in Twentieth Century Scholarship. Essays on Global and Comparative History Series. (1996).
Thomas F. Bertonneau (August 18, 2009).
Snapshots of The Continent Entre Deux Guerres:
Keyserlings Europe (1928) and Spenglers Hour of
Decision (1934)". The Brussels Journal.

11.1

In foreign languages

Bertonneau, Thomas F. (May 31, 2012). Oswald

Spengler on Democracy, Equality, and 'Historylessness". The Brussels Journal,.
Chisholm, A. R. (September 1935). Oswald Spengler and the Decline of the West. Australian Quarterly 7 (27).
Chisholm, A. R. (September 1942). No Decline of
the West: Sorokins Reply to Spengler. Australian
Quarterly, 14 (3).
R. G. Collingwood (1927). Oswald Spengler and
the Theory of Historical Cycles. Antiquity 1.
David E. Cooper. 'Reactionary Modernism'. In
Anthony O'Hear (ed.) German Philosophy Since
Kant. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1999, pp. 291304.
Costello, Paul. World Historians and Their Goals:
Twentieth-Century Answers to Modernism (1993).
Dakin, Edwin F. Today and Destiny: Vital Excepts
from the Decline of the West of Oswald Spengler.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962.
Christopher Dawson (1956). Oswald Spengler and
the Life of Civilizations In The Dynamics Of World
History. Sheed And Ward.
John Farrenkopf (JulSep 1991). The Transformation of Spenglers Philosophy of World History.
Journal of the History of Ideas 52 (3).
Farrenkopf, John (October 1991). Spenglers 'Der
Mensch und die Technik: An Embarrassment or a
Signicant Treatise?". German Studies Review 14
(3).
Farrenkopf, John (June 1993). Spenglers Historical Pessimism and the Tragedy of Our Age. Theory
and Society 22 (3).
Fennelly, John F. (1972). Twilight of the Evening
Lands: Oswald Spengler A Half Century Later.
New York: Brookdale Press. ISBN 0-912650-01X.
Fischer, Klaus P. History and Prophecy: Oswald
Spengler and the Decline of the West. Durham:
Moore, 1977.
Frye, Northrop. "Spengler Revisited. In Northrop
Frye on Modern Culture (2003), pp 297382, rst
published 1974.

7
H. Stuart Hughes (1952). Oswald Spengler: A Critical Estimate. Charles Scribners Sons.
Hughes, H. Stuart (1991). Preface to the Present
Edition. The Decline of the West: An Abridged
Edition, by Oswald Spengler. New York: Oxford
University Press. ISBN 0-19-506751-7.
Kidd, Ian James. Oswald Spengler, Technology,
and Human Nature: 'Man and Technics as Philosophical Anthropology. In The European Legacy,
forthcoming.
Kogan, Steve. "'I See Further Than Others: Reections On Oswald Spenglers The Decline of the West
and The Hour of Decision, Part 2(A), Part 2(B),
Part 3, Part 4(A), Part 4(B), Part 5(A), Part 5(B),
The Brussels Journal, 201011.
Robert W. Merry Spenglers Ominous Prophecy,
National Interest, January 2, 2013.
Nicholls, Roger A. (Summer 1985). Thomas Mann
and Spengler. The German Quarterly 58 (3).
Rees, Philip (ed.) (1991). Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890. ISBN 0-13089301-3.
Weigert, Hans W. (October 1942). Oswald Spengler, Twenty-ve Years After: The Future in Retrospect. Foreign Aairs.

11.1 In foreign languages

Baltzer, Armin. Philosoph oder Prophet? Oswald
Spenglers Vermchtnis und Voraussagen [Philosopher or Prophet?], Verlag fr Kulturwissenschaften,
1962.
Caruso, Sergio. Lo Sptwerk storico-losoco
di Oswald Spengler [Oswald Spenglers HistoricPhilosophical Sptwerk]. In Antologia Vieusseux,
Vol. 11, No. 4142, Jan.June 1976, pp. 6772.
Caruso, Sergio. La politica del Destino. Relativismo
storico e irrazionalismo politico nel pensiero di Oswald Spengler [Destinys politics. Historical relativism & political irrationalism in Oswald Spenglers
thought]. Firenze: Cultura 1979.
Caruso, Sergio. Oswald Spengler: un centenario
dimenticato?". In Nuova Antologia, Vol. 115, No.
2136, Oct.Dec. 1980, pp. 34754.

Goddard, E. H. Civilisation or Civilisations: An Essay on the Spenglerian Philosophy of History, Boni

& Liveright, 1926.

Caruso, Sergio. Minoranze, caste e partiti nel pensiero di Oswald Spengler. In Politica e societ.
Scritti in onore di Luciano Cavalli, ed. by G. Bettin. Cedam: Padova 1997, pp. 21482.

Paul Gottfried (March 1982). Spengler and the Inspiration of the Classical Age. Modern Age XXVI
(1).

Felken, Detlef. Oswald Spengler; Konservativer

Denker zwischen Kaiserreich und Diktatur. Munich:
CH Beck, 1988.

12
Messer, August. Oswald Spengler als Philosoph,
Strecker und Schrder, 1922.
Reichelt, Stefan G. Oswald Spengler. In: Nikolaj
A. Berdjaev in Deutschland 19201950. Eine rezeptionshistorische Studie. Universittsverlag: Leipzig
1999, pp. 7173. ISBN 3-933240-88-3.
Schroeter, Manfred. Metaphysik des Untergangs:
eine kulturkritische Studie ber Oswald Spengler,
Leibniz Verlag, 1949.

12

External links

Works by or about Oswald Spengler at Internet

Archive
Nikolai Berdyaev.
Faust..

The Pre-Death Thoughts of

S. Srikanta Sastri, Oswald Spengler on Indian Culture

Spengler, Oswald The Decline of the West v. 1
(1926) and v. 2 (1928), Alfred A. Knopf
Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler (18801936)
The Oswald Spengler Collection
Timeline of Spenglers life (translated from German)
Overview of Spengler and his works
Works by Spengler, including his books, essays and
lectures (in German)
Complete bibliography of Spenglers essays, lectures, and books, including translations, arranged
chronologically
The Modernism Lab: Oswald Spengler
Works by Oswald Spengler, at Unz.

EXTERNAL LINKS

13
13.1

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

Oswald Spengler Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald%20Spengler?oldid=650257533 Contributors: Mav, Ben-Zin, Olivier, Leandrod, Edward, Nixdorf, Gabbe, Karada, Andres, Jeandr du Toit, Ruhrjung, Kbk, The quark, Grendelkhan, Nv8200p, Dimadick, 80.255,
Goethean, Marc Venot, Decumanus, DocWatson42, Supergee, Andycjp, Piotrus, Tsemii, Adashiel, D6, Rich Farmbrough, Ahkond, Bender235, Ampersand, Rgdboer, Sietse Snel, Elipongo, Perceval, AR, Arthena, Philip Cross, RyanGerbil10, Kennethmyers, Bobrayner,
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Concors, Julian Felsenburgh, Ombredunord, LudicrousTripe, Pepesia, EvaristoAugello, 97ytkljgg789, Monkbot, Logic12345, Medmatix
and Anonymous: 187

13.2

Images

File:Blue_flag_waving.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Blue_flag_waving.svg License: CC-BY-SA3.0 Contributors: Based on Image:Red ag waving.svg by Wereon. Original PNG by Nikodemos. Original artist: Viktorvoigt
File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-R06610,_Oswald_Spengler.jpg Source:
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http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/DodgerBlue_flag_waving.svg Li-

Red_ag_waving.svg Original artist: Red_ag_waving.svg: Wereon

File:Oswald_Spengler_signature.PNG Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Oswald_Spengler_signature.
PNG License: Public domain Contributors: shot Original artist: Oswald Spengler
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13.3

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