The Hour of Decision, Part One: Germany and World-Historical Evolution.
New York: Alfred Knopf, 1934. hardback.
The Hour of Decision, Part One: Germany and World-Historical Evolution. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1934. First edition, 3rd (March) printing. Light green hardcover, spine slightly faded, pages bright and clean. 230pp+index. Oswald Spengler (1880-1936) was a German polymath whose areas of interest included history, philosophy, mathematics, science, and art. He is best known for his two-volume work, The Decline of the West, published in 1918 and 1922, covering human history. Spengler's model of history postulates that human cultures and civilizations are akin to biological entities, each with a limited, predictable, and deterministic lifespan. He regarded the transformation of ultra-capitalist mass democracies into dictatorial regimes as inevitable, postulating that that about the year 2000, Western civilization would enter the period of pre‑death emergency which would lead to 200 years of Caesarism (extra-constitutional omnipotence of the executive branch of government) before Western society's final collapse. The Hour of Decision argues for "Prussianism" to save civilization from the "Coloured Peril," based on Spengler's view that the white (European) tribes were under attack by colored races through a "war" by various political forces. Spengler's writings had significant effect on the racial thinking of Adolf Hitler and the rising Nazi party viewed his writings as a means to provide a "respectable pedigree" to its ideology. Spengler saw Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and entrepreneurial types, like the South African mining magnate Cecil Rhodes, as examples of the impending Caesars of Western culture—one only wonders what Spengler would have to say about Donald Trump and Elon Musk were he writing today. A chilling and foreboding essay, long overlooked except among the far-right, and arguably one that influenced the primary authors of Project 2025.
Item #94Price: $150.00