List $29.95

Written by Jacques Barzun - Audio book narrated by Edward Herrmann - Nonfiction Selections - 6 CASSETTES - 9 hours

Publisher, Harper Audio (May 2001)

"[Barzun] writes with unfailing, stylish lucidity and enlivens his vast tale with ingenious devices." --The New Yorker

"[Barzun] restores color to faded memories of history and paints in the mural here bits were missing." --Sebastian Mallaby, Washington Post Book World

Highly regarded for his works of cultural history and criticism, master historian Jacques Barzun turns his gaze to the past tumultuous hundred years. Taken from From Dawn to Decadence, his landmark study of the past five centuries, Barzun's enthralling analysis of the Twentieth Century rates the present not as a culmination of Western civilization, but as a decline. Barzun is in no way, however, a prophet of doom. Instead, he shows decadence as the normal close of great periods in history and a necessary condition of the creative novelty that will burst forth -- tomorrow or the next day.

About the Author: Born in France in 1907, Jacques Barzun came to the United States in 1920. After graduating from Columbia College, he joined the faculty of the university, becoming Seth Low Professor of History and, for a decade, Dean of Faculties and Provost. The author of some thirty books, he received the Gold Medal for Criticism from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, of which he was twice president.