author
Oswald Spengler
1880–1936
Best known for The Decline of the West, this German thinker explored history as a series of living cultures that rise, flower, and fade. His sweeping, controversial vision made him one of the most talked-about interpreters of modern civilization.
4 Audiobooks
The decline of the West, Volume 1 : Form and actuality
by Oswald Spengler
Der Untergang des Abendlandes, Zweiter Band
by Oswald Spengler
Der Untergang des Abendlandes, Erster Band
by Oswald Spengler
The decline of the West, Volume 2 : Perspectives of world-history
by Oswald Spengler
About the author
Born in Blankenburg, Germany, in 1880, Oswald Spengler studied mathematics, natural science, philosophy, and art history before turning to writing. He is remembered above all for his two-volume work The Decline of the West (published in 1918 and 1922), which argued that civilizations pass through life cycles much like organisms.
Spengler wrote in a bold, wide-ranging style, bringing together politics, religion, science, art, and culture in one grand historical picture. His ideas were highly influential in the years after World War I, especially because he challenged the comforting belief that history moves steadily toward progress.
He remained an important and divisive public intellectual in Germany until his death in Munich in 1936. Readers still return to his work for its ambition, its dark energy, and its striking attempt to explain the fate of whole civilizations.