John Lukacs, born in Hungary, took refuge in the USA after the
Second World War, and became an eminent historian of modern war,
society and culture. In this latest book - he has written a score -
he argues that 'the modern age', in which we have lived since the
Renaissance, is drawing to a close. Among several names for it, he
proposes 'the Age of the Book', for it began with the invention of
printing. He sees many signs of the impending end of an age: for
instance, new brutalities in painting, architecture and music,
reversions to savagery in previously cultivated societies, a
loosening of sexual morality, a growth in credulity: 'the craziest
myths may become popular among hundreds of millions'. He is sure
that one of the characteristics that distinguishes humankind from
other species is our consciousness of history, which he believes
has always been with us (he rejects the concept of 'prehistory',
believing simply that early history was not written down). He is
impressed by the work of the physicists, Planck and Heisenberg,
especially by Heisenberg's principle of indeterminacy; this leads
him to doubt the infallibility of Einstein, as well as Marx, Darwin
and Freud, the four principal gurus of the 20th-century
intelligentsia. In principle, he detests determinists, and believes
in free will; he also argues forcibly for a view of the universe in
which - in the teeth of the astronomical evidence - humankind plays
a central part. As a single illustration of how wrong things have
gone, he devotes a chapter to Hitler's rise and fall. In what had
been the most highly cultured state in the world, a man of no
breeding and no education was able to become immensely popular, to
trigger off a world war and to supervise a colossal massacre as
well. This short and stimulating book, drawn from a lifetime's
reading and meditation, is unusually thought-provoking. (Kirkus UK)
At the End of an Age isa deeply informed and rewarding reflection
on the nature of historical and scientific knowledge. Of
extraordinary philosophical, religious, and historical scope, it is
the product of a great historian's lifetime of thought on the
subject of his discipline and the human condition. While running
counter to most of the accepted ideas and doctrines of our time, it
offers a compelling framework for understanding history, science,
and man's capacity for self-knowledge. In this work, John Lukacs
describes how we in the Western world have now been living through
the ending of an entire historical age that began in Western Europe
about five hundred years ago. Unlike people during the ending of
the Middle Ages or the Roman empire, we can know where we are. But
how and what is it that we know? In John Lukacs's view, there is no
science apart from scientists, and all of "Science," including our
view of the universe, is a human creation, imagined and defined by
fallible human beings in a historical continuum. This radical and
reactionary assertion-in its way a summa ofthe author's thinking,
expressed here and there in many of his previous twenty-odd
books-leads to his fundamental assertion that, contrary to all
existing cosmological doctrines and theories, it is this earth
which is the very center of the universe-the only universe we know
and can know.
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