Oswald Spengler. The Decline of the West. An abridged edition by
Helmut Werner. English abridged edition prepared by Arthur Helps
from the translation by Charles Francis Atkinson. New York:
oxford University Press c199 [1926, 1928, 1932]. xxxx,415, xvix
CITIES AND PEOPLES [250]
What makes the man of the world-cities incapable of living on any
but this artificial footing is that the cosmic beat in his being
is every decreasing, while the tensions of his waking-
consciousness become more and more dangerous..
[252]this then, is the conclusion of the city's history; growing
from primitive barter-centre to Culture-city and at last to
world-city, it sacrifices first the blood and soul of its
creators to the needs of its majestic evolution, and then the lst
flower of that growth to the spirit of civilization--and so,
doomed, moves on to final self-destruction.
...
But the essence of Alexandrinism and of our Romanticism is
something which belongs to all urban men, without distinction.
Romanticism marks the beginning of that which Goethe, with his
wide vision, called world-literature--the literature of the
leading world-city, against which a provincial literature,
native to the soil, but negligible, struggles everywhere with
difficulty to maintain itself. ...
Consequently in all Civilizations the "modern" cities
assume a more and more uniform type...
Sections from Spengler, The Decline of the West:
Introduction: Civilization
Introduction: Imperialism
Architecture and Divinities
Imitation and Ornament
The History of Style as an Organism
Arts as Symbol of the Higher Order
Popular and Esoteric
Will to Power
Impressionism
Morale of Dawning Civilizations
The History of Style as an Organism
Pergamum and Bayreuth: the End of Art
Classical Behaviour Drama and Faustian Character Drama
Every Culture Possesses its own Ethic
Every Science is Dependent upon Religion
Atheism
Origin and Landscape: the Group of the Higher Cultures
Cities
Reformation
Science
Second Religiousness
The State
Politics
Conclusion
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