How the West Was Lost
By Ben Ryan
Hurst & Company, 192pp, £20/$19.50
The decline of Western civilisation has been a persistent topic of discussion and rumination ever since the First World War. It was this global upheaval which proved such a profound shock to Europe and America’s collective mindset, shattering the peaceful and prosperous Victorian consensus. Oswald Spengler’s landmark book The Decline of the West (1922) was to herald the shape of things to come.
If the 1950s marked a brief respite, the themes of decline and decay saw a revival in the 1970s (by which time Britain had descended into actual crisis), when these themes started to become common currency in the United States. Donald Trump’s current exhortation to “make America great again” indicates that the narrative of degeneration still persists. And to read French newspapers and magazines, you will notice that our cross-channel neighbours are positively haunted by the notion that France is heading towards oblivion.
