The Hour of Decision: Germany and World-Historical Evolution Paperback – September 30, 2002

The good: this has more of a stream of conscious feel to it which makes it easier to read than decline of the West.The bad: full of typos, misspellings, and oddly placed punctuation. Not sure if that is due to translation or just bad editing.I would recommend a copy from a different publisher. My copy of decline (put out by Vintage) has none of these problems.

While this is an excellent book by Spengler, this edition was put together very poorly. I don't know why a publisher would release a book that is filled with typos and grammatical issues. Very disappointing.

Spengler does get it all correct, but he does provide a rough road map that gets us closer to a STRUCTURED understanding of the histories of culture versus civilization. Only four stars since Spengler is not the first to attempt this burdensome task/service. Worth reading, but would recommend reading The Decline of the West first. Some knowledge of ancient histories/persons helpful but not required. Be prepared to take notes. Worth the time, if for no other reason than to provide the reader with the vacuous, if not Satanic, nature of the so-called "world revolution" as orchestrated by the likes of Marx, Schiff, Lenin, et al. of their ilk.

The writing of a genius.

The previous reviewer (who seems to think that Spengler is *advocating* when he is, in fact, *analyzing*) offers a complete distortion of this work. This is a penetrating follow-up to The Decline of the West, a book that takes the theories that Spengler outlined in abstract in his two-volume magnum opus, and applies them to the specific circumstances of his day.As for the accusation of racism, Spengler means something completely different by the term ''race'' than what we now describe as ''racist'' thinking. As Spengler himself writes in this book:''[S]peaking of race, it is not intended in the sense in which it is the fashion among anti-Semites in Europe and America to use it today: Darwinistically, materially. Race purity is a grotesque word in view of the fact that for centuries all stocks and species have been mixed, and the warlike -- that is, healthy -- generations with a future before them have from time immemorial always welcomed a stranger into the family if he had 'race,' to whatever race it was he belonged. Those who talk too much about race no longer have it in them.'' (p.219)By ''race,'' Spengler means something much more akin to ''character,'' as well as cultural and national vitality. As he indicates in the above passage, he has no use for the more common type of racist thought, which he ridicules as mere ''zoology'' (p.225)But moving beyond that specific issue, this work is a profound examination of the economic and spiritual crisis that faced Western culture in the 1930s, and continues to face it today.

Anyone who has read Spengler know his books make for heavy reading. However, his view in 1933 reflects much of what has happened and is happening today. His basic argument is that "Preußentum" is the type of character required for the white race to hold pre eminence in the world, vis a vis the colored races. Incidentally, apart of the negros, he calls colored people those from Russia, southern Spain and Italy among other.Let us not forget that in the U.S. during the first decades of the 20th centuriy even immigrants from eastern europe were considered non-whites. Only immigrants from nordic-germanic-north european countries were referred to as whites.The problem he sees occurring is the economic competition being waged by the colored races by charging much less for their products (sounds familiar?) taking markets away from whites and copying white race's technologies.He also discusses the decadence and misery brought about by socialism; we all know what disasters "bolchevism" would cause in Europe.All in all, a very good book.

Having found this book through Amazon's extensive network of used book dealers, I must say I feel I have been blessed by the gods, as this book is almost impossible to find (in English).I've waded into the introduction thus far, and I must say that it's a MUST read for anyone who has tackled "der Untergag des Abendlandes" -- The Decline of the West. Spengler warns that the 1933 revolution in Germany was JUST the beginning to a new and revitalized Europe, but he also warned that SHOULD Europe enter into another war, the "Decline" of the West would be transformed into the "Suicide" of the West. As anyone who is familiar with Spengler, you'll see he has been dead on in most fields since he launched Decline of the West during the first great war.The book concludes with a warning about the non-white world getting their hands on the white man's technology and using it to finally out do and destroy the white man (I'm simplifying it of course, but that's the gist).I would highly recommend you try finding the book;...

The Hour of Decision was written by the German thinker Oswald Spengler and first published in 1933, the year National Socialism took over power in German. The book is a fizzled and sad sequel, despite foreseeable, to Oswald Spengler's major opus, The Decline of the West, first published in 1918 and one has the feeling that he seemed to grab with both hands the historical window of opportunity to jump into (mainly) Mussolini's autocratic bandwagon, frequently quoting the italian dictator as incorporating many of the qualities of a would-be imperial autocrat, in the shadows of Julius Cesar, Napoleon and a few others, thus fulfilling the natural whole autocrats should have in the History of the West, as per the Decline of the West.In my opinion, Oswald Spengler's The Hour of Decision is a racist pamphlet against Jews and all minorities, and deserves all the censure for its backward racist points-of-view.________________________________________________________________________

A work of prophetic genius that in the words of Revilo Pendleton Oliver was 30 to 50 years ahead of its time in what Spengler foresaw, I would say it was further ahead than this up to the present day.

A great book that provides clearity and insight into much of the cultural insanity we are experiencing today. This book was written 80 years ago, but it's diagnosis are as true today as ever. Spengler was more than just a visionary, this book proves he was a prophet.