With Both Hands

Sign in Subscribe

Decadence

The Long View 2009-03-09

The Long View 2009-03-09

John J. Reilly helps us to understand what decadence means: Barzun laconically informs us that late medieval Europe was a "decadent" society. I myself had thought that Richard Gilman had permanently retired that word with his study "Decadence: The Strange Life of an Epithet," but Barzun

The Long View: Warrior Politics

The opening entry of this review explains much of John's views on the Middle East. And also why this article was published in First Things. Robert Kaplan has spent these past 20 years reporting on local collapses of civilization, chiefly in sub-Saharan Africa, the Balkans, and the Middle

Decadence

My web colleague John Reilly has a bit on his site about societal decadence that is particularly good. John says: Regarding the apparent collapse of the attempt by the Obama Administration to reform the American medical industry, Jacques Barzun's historical survey From Dawn to Decadence best sums upwhat