{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1416576339?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"1416576339","authors":["Arthur Herman"],"book_id":"9781416576334","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781416576334","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781416576334.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","description":"Historian Arthur Herman traces the roots of declinism and shows how major thinkers, past and present, have contributed to its development as a coherent ideology of cultural pessimism. From Nazism to the Sixties counterculture, from Britain's Fabian socialists to America's multiculturalists, and from Dracula and Freud to Robert Bly and Madonna, this work examines the idea of decline in Western history and sets out to explain how the conviction of civilization's inevitable end has become a fixed part of the modern Western imagination. Through a series of biographical portraits spanning the 19th and 20th centuries, the author traces the roots of declinism and aims to show how major thinkers of the past and present, including Nietzsche, DuBois, Sartre, and Foucault, have contributed to its development as a coherent ideology of cultural pessimism.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781416576334","publication_date":"20070907","publisher":"Free Press","slug":"the-idea-of-decline-in-western-history","subtitle":"","title":"The Idea of Decline in Western History"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"HIS000000","confidence_band":"high","label":"History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS039000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Civilizations","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"PHI000000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Philosophy","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}],"hint":[],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS000000","confidence_band":"high","label":"History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS039000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Civilizations","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"PHI000000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Philosophy","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"History","score":1,"slug":"history"},{"label":"Civilizations","score":1,"slug":"civilizations"},{"label":"Philosophy","score":1,"slug":"philosophy"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy History","Good for readers interested in philosophy","Good for fans of History"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Neil MacGregor"],"book_id":"9780670022700","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780670022700.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":10.7416,"title":"A History of the World in 100 Objects","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780670022700"},{"authors":["Martin Lenz","Isabel Iribarren"],"book_id":"9781138251441","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781138251441.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":9.6592,"title":"Angels in Medieval Philosophical Inquiry","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781138251441"},{"authors":["Karl Marx"],"book_id":"9798880907786","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9798880907786.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":8.9862,"title":"Manifesto of the Communist Party","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9798880907786"},{"authors":["Aristotle"],"book_id":"9781625583697","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781625583697.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":8.8997,"title":"On the Heavens","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781625583697"},{"authors":["Will Durant"],"book_id":"9781451647624","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781451647624.jpg?v=20260402T191500Z-bisacv2site-fullset%3A2026-04-05T16%3A15%3A58Z","score":8.7549,"title":"The Renaissance","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781451647624"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:western philosophy"],"label":"Philosophy","score":0.1142,"slug":"philosophy"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:dark ages"],"label":"Dark","score":0.0812,"slug":"dark"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:dark ages"],"label":"Ages","score":0.0774,"slug":"ages"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:great britain"],"label":"Great","score":0.0503,"slug":"great"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:british army"],"label":"British","score":0.0475,"slug":"british"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Philosophy, Dark, Ages.","Reading lane: History and Civilizations.","Publisher: Free Press."]},"llm_signals":null,"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":false,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":240,"goodreads_reviews_count":42,"quality_score":0.8847}}