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Article: Exploring the history of cultural pessimism.(Books)
- Article from:
- The Washington Times (Washington, DC)
- Article date:
- April 6, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 News World Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Arthur Herman handles with admirable ease the theories of decline numerous thinkers from the ancients to the moderns have given us. But the main thrust of his new book, "The Idea of Decline in Western History," is discussing intellectuals and writers who follow in the tradition of the 18th century Frenchman Jean-Jacques Rousseau, for whom human society was a very faulty thing, badly in need of restructuring, and history a series of mistakes in need of rectification.
"Everything degenerates in the hands of men," or so Rousseau claimed. Mr. Herman discusses the large number of people who have agreed with Rousseau's assertion and developed their own explanations ...