The Spengler Bundle

The Essential Spengler

Two works by Oswald Spengler that belong together. The Decline of the West is the grand system. Prussianism and Socialism is the same mind working in pamphlet form, applying his historical morphology to the immediate political crisis of Weimar Germany. This bundle gives you both.

What's Included

The Decline of the West (Cosimo Classics, two volumes in one). Spengler's magnum opus, first published in two volumes between 1918 and 1922. The book proposes that civilizations are organisms: they are born, mature, age, and die according to patterns that can be identified and compared across history. Spengler identifies eight high cultures and traces each through its phases, from the spiritual "culture" stage to the materialistic "civilization" stage. His thesis that the West has entered its final, Caesarist phase has influenced historians, political theorists, and cultural critics for over a century.

Prussianism and Socialism (Legend Books). Published in 1919, one year after the first volume of Decline. Spengler argues that true socialism is not Marxist class warfare but the Prussian ethic of duty, discipline, and service to the state. He draws a sharp distinction between the English commercial spirit and the Prussian military-bureaucratic ethos, arguing that Germany's future depends on embracing the latter. The essay is short, polemical, and surprisingly readable. It clarifies what Spengler meant by "socialism" in a way that the larger work only implies.

About This Bundle

• Author: Oswald Spengler
• Publishers: Cosimo Classics, Legend Books
• Format: Paperback, 2 books