%0 Journal Article
%T The longue dur¨¦e of Spengler¡¯s thesis of the decline of the West
%A Chris Rojek
%J European Journal of Social Theory
%@ 1461-7137
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/1368431017736411
%X Spengler¡¯s The Decline of the West was a major publishing success in Weimar Germany. The study presents the end of Western civilization as an inevitable process of birth, maturity and death. Civilization is conceived as an inflexible ¡®morphology¡¯. Spengler¡¯s thinking was influenced by a profound distaste with the optimism of the Belle Epoque, which he found to be complacent. The argument had a good deal of attraction to readers, especially German readers, who were suffering under the ¡®Carthaginian Peace¡¯ of the Treaty of Versailles of 1919. Adorno and others were critical of Spengler¡¯s thesis. The article examines Spengler¡¯s thesis and its implications for the West today
%K Adorno
%K decline
%K determination
%K morphology
%K Spengler
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1368431017736411