At the End of an Age

The late social critic Neil Postman once observed that we would all do well if we studied the history and philosophy of things. Many silly ideas have been believed and defended in the name of science. Often these things are propagated by those who have given no attention to the philosophy (ideas and assumptions of the discipline) and history (not everyone, everywhere believes or has believed what modern science teaches as "fact") of science. In this insightful book, Dr. Lukacs challenges many of the assumptions people have about the history of history and historical thinking. His comments and criticisms about science are right on target! For those who would dare think at the end of an age when few are thinking, read this book.

Fleeing from a not yet wholly Sovietized Hungary to the US, Lukacs was convinced 20 years ago that the entire Modern Age was crumbling fast. By 2002 he was able to write that during the past 10 years his conviction had hardened into an unquestioning belief that not only an entire age and the civilization to which he belonged, were passing but that we are living through - if not already beyond - its very end. Even ordinary people when confronted with the moral rottenness with which we are surrounded conjure up thoughts of the last days of the Roman Empire and have a gut feeling that we are seeing the end of the European Age which began about 500 years ago. As late as 1914 the entire continent of Africa was governed by Europe but after two disastrous world wars and 80 years later there is not one European-ruled African state and European colonists have left their Asian homelands. To the observant, the European Age was clearly over by 1945 when super power status was with the US and with Russia. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall we are living through one of the greatest changes in the entire history of mankind - a period when history is being made by majorities whereas it has been made by minorities in the past and when the aristocratic era has been replaced by democracy. Most of the great minds and artists of the last 500 years had bourgeois origins; the Bourgeois Age was the age of the state, money, industry, cities, privacy, family, schooling, representation and science all of which are declining except for the last two. Evidence of decay is mixed with elements of lasting progress such as health, longevity, material comforts, cheap travel, democracy, working conditions and state welfare, but these should not blind us to the reality of decline. The period from 1914 to 1989 was a transitional period and we are now in a new era. The last time something like this happened was 500-600 years ago but then it involved a small minority of people creating the Renaissance, which is not happening now. At the end of the Modern Age, for the first time in 200 years, more and more people in more and more fields of life, have begun to question the idea of progress. A great division among the American people has begun between unthinking believers in technology and economic determination and those who question and publicly oppose more concrete, more automobiles and more noisy machinery ruling their lives. We must engage in a radical rethinking of progress, history, science, limitations of our knowledge and of our place in the universe and this is what this book is all about. Having set the scene, the author devotes several chapters to justifying his argument and it is not until chapter 5: At the Center of the Universe that he says: "And now I arrive at the most dramatic proposition of this book. Contrary to all accepted ideas we must now, at the end of an Age, recognize that we, and our earth, are at the center of our universe. We did not create the universe. But t

Mr. Lukacs' clear and unpretentious style is a joy. I first learned of this book when I saw him speak of it on C-Span's Book TV. His talk clearly showed that he is a brilliant man, and this book reveals his sagacity to the fullest. I don't know, maybe it's just an idiosyncrasy of mine, but I love to study the musings of wise old men. Anyway, the subject matter is disconcerting, but it must be faced. Mr. Lukacs does so with a balanced mixture of pessimism, optimism, caution, and wit. Highly recommended reading, especially in conjunction with Jacques Barzun's more comprehensive FROM DAWN TO DECADENCE.

This is that most rare of scholarly books, namely, one that is well written and meaningful. Briefly, Mr. Lukacs holds that much of what came into being in western society, and is largely taken for granted even though it didn't exist in the Middle Ages, is disappearing or collapsing. This list includes the state (and it's ability to provide law and order to the common citizen), money (of any REAL value), industry, cities, books and literacy, and the right to privacy. None of this is too shocking, since, as he points out, even the common working man in a bar can readily recognise the analogy between American, or western, civilization and Roman civilization. I find it interesting how more and more first rate minds, like Jacques Barzun (Dawn to Decadence) and Morris Berman (The Twilight of American Culture) are coming to quite simular historical summations. It seems that one no longer has to be a science fiction writer, pestimistic paranoid, or religious fanatic to see that we are nearing the end of of anything worth terming civilization. Lukacs holds that the future struggle will be between those who hold that men are mere machines and those who hold that we are creatures (in a spiritual sense.) Put me down as a creature, please.

Historian John Lukacs explains what every one of us knows and can see in his newest book, `"At the End of an Age" published by Yale University Press. Many people are distinctly uneasy with many aspects of contemporary culture. Society is changing in ways that have many people uncomfortable. Those on earth with international perspectives and a comprehensive education are very uncomfortable. Mr. Lukas has description and explanation in his new book that will be a comfort to you if you are concerned.Civilization is always in flux. It is very difficult to summarize. Leadership and education have changed. Functional illiteracy is both a part of life and leadership in politics. Look no further than a functionally illiterate President with deplorable grammar, a distinct inability to read, and evidencing never having read much at all in `charge' of the most powerful nation on earth. George Bush is a functionally illiterate puerile leader exactly in the mold of popular "B' movie actor Ronald Reagan.Reading is fundamentally and definitely not a part of education. The age-old tendency to the pictorial view of life has become the standard for perception among most people on earth. It isn't necessary to be a "reader" or a verbal and literate person to get an education or lead. `Education' no longer requires general and comprehensive literacy and leadership. It follows the tendencies of culture.Earth has people discussing their "environment" politically as if they were not a part of it themselves. Europeans have done so for decades. They live in an environment where no window screens are necessary on any buildings. Human beings have decimated the entirety of nature from the predators through microbes. People universally and pictorially "bought in" on "philosophy": that separated mind and body. There are unnatural ideologies and separations.Privacy itself was a short-lived notion. There was no such thing in the middle ages. The notion of the family and children is also dead in our culture. Likewise there is no privacy in the age of the Internet. Issues once considered private like mental instability have been unmasked for cause by sociology and psychology in research by the numbers revealing the nature of everything from esteem problems to violence as having etiology in "privacy" and "family" that are undeniable.Since so many people are being "educated" today and going to university, it is very obvious that "education" is changing. The contemporary "educated" person has been subjected to redefinition. Specificity and specialization is the current nature of education. Total literacy across a broad spectrum as a standard for being "educated" is no longer a fact. John Luckas knows what most intelligent people know. The world is becoming a big and amorphous `nothing' in the establishment of the modern age. Cities are no longer urbane. Cities are crime ridden open sewers of culture on the decline. Urbanity and education are no longer synonymous. It is not desirable