Spengler's The Decline of the West; CCWV.LIFE

In 1918, as the Great War ends, Oswald Spengler publishes the first volume of The Decline of the West, arguing that cultures are organisms that age into mere civilization and die. The book's vast readership takes it as the philosophy of an exhausted Europe, and its fatalism becomes a standing exhibit in the century's arguments about nihilism.

Tagged: Nihilism

The Event

Date: 1918 (exact)
Era: The Century of Catastrophe; Standard periodization of the nihilist movement and idea
Location: Munich; today Munich, Germany
Traditions: Nihilism
Streams: Nihilism
Key figures: Oswald Spengler
Key texts: The Decline of the West

Primary Sources

Spengler, Oswald. Der Untergang des Abendlandes. Vienna and Munich, 1918-1922.

Secondary Sources

Crosby, Donald A. The Specter of the Absurd: Sources and Criticisms of Modern Nihilism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1988.
Gillespie, Michael Allen. Nihilism Before Nietzsche. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
Nishitani, Keiji. Religion and Nothingness. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.
Reginster, Bernard. The Affirmation of Life: Nietzsche on Overcoming Nihilism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006.

Provenance: HIST-1354; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.