Decadence
Explore the curated Decadence reading list: classic books on cultural decline, history, and human nature. Featuring Rites of Spring by Modris Eksteins, Sexual Personae, and more.
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Sexual Personae
by Camille Paglia
The fiery, provocative, and unparalleled work of feminist art criticism that launched the exceptional career of one of our most important public intellectuals—"a remarkable book, at once outrageous and compelling, fanatical and brilliant.... One must be awed by [Paglia's] vast energy, erudition and wit" (The Washington Post). Is Emily Dickinson “the female Sade”? Is Donatello’s David a bit of pedophile pornography? What is the secret kinship between Byron and Elvis Presley, between Medusa and Madonna? How do liberals and feminists—as well as conservatives—fatally misread human nature? This audacious and omnivorously learned work of guerrilla scholarship offers nothing less than a unified-field theory of Western culture, high and low, since Egyptians invented beauty—making a persuasive case for all art as a pagan battleground between male and female, form and chaos, civilization and daemonic nature. With 47 photographs.
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The Pursuit of the Millennium
by Norman Cohn
This fascinating book explores the millenarianism that flourished in Western Europe between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries.
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Rites of Spring
by Modris Eksteins
Looks at the origins and impact of World War I, discusses the premiere of Stravinsky's ballet, and analyzes public opinion of the period.
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From Dawn to Decadence; 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present
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No summary available.
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The Camp of the Saints
by Jean Raspail
This thought-provoking book anticipates a situation which seems plausible today: it describes the peaceful invasion of France, and then of the West, by a third world burgeoned into multitudes. At all levels - global consciousness, governments, societies, and especially every person within themself - the question is asked belatedly: what's to be done?
