鄭明萱 Knihy

Highly regarded here and abroad for some thirty works of cultural history and criticism, master historian Jacques Barzun has now set down in one continuous narrative the sum of his discoveries and conclusions about the whole of Western culture since 1500. In this account, Barzun describes what Western Man wrought from the Renaisance and Reformation down to the present in the double light of its own time and our pressing concerns. He introduces characters and incidents with his unusual literary style and grace, bringing to the fore those that have "Puritans as Democrats," "The Monarch's Revolution," "The Artist Prophet and Jester" -- show the recurrent role of great themes throughout the eras. The triumphs and defeats of five hundred years form an inspiring saga that modifies the current impression of one long tale of oppression by white European males. Women and their deeds are prominent, and freedom (even in sexual matters) is not an invention of the last decades. And when Barzun rates the present not as a culmination but a decline, he is in no way a prophet of doom. Instead, he shows decadence as the creative novelty that will burst forth -- tomorrow or the next day. Only after a lifetime of separate studies covering a broad territory could a writer create with such ease the synthesis displayed in this magnificent volume.

二十世紀,為人類興起了所能想像的最大希望,但同時也摧毀了所有幻望和理想的極端年代。極端的年代—————————部短促二十世紀的歷史,一位宏觀史家走過的一生,一個你我都會或長或短、或深或淺生活於其中的世界的故 事。

二十世紀,為人類興起了所能想像的最大希望,但同時也摧毀了所有幻望和理想的極端年代。極端的年代——一部短促二十世紀的歷史,一位宏觀史家走過的一生,一個你我都會或長或短、或深或淺生活於其中的世界的故事。