从黎明到衰颓（全三册）

内容概要

巴森（Jacques Barzun）

西方文化史大師，一九○七年生於法國，一九二○年隨父抵美，進入哥倫比亞大學研讀歷史與法律。畢業後即留校執教，歷任該校羅塞斯歷史講座教授，後曾任教務長、院長，同時為劍橋大學邱吉爾學院的榮譽研究員。七十年來，巴森教授編著有卅餘部著作，內容無所不談，包含音樂、思想史，當代藝術、科學評論，甚至還有偵探小說的導讀。他獲有美國國家藝術人文學會金質獎章，兩度任該會主席。目前定居於德州。

书籍目录

PROLOGUE:

From Current Concerns

to the Subject of This Book • xiii

PART I:

From Luther's Ninety-five Theses

to Boyle's "Invisible College" • 1

PART II:

From the Bog and Sand of Versailles

to the Tennis Court • 237

PART III:

From Faust, Part I, to the

"Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2" • 463

PART IV:

From "The Great Illusion"

to "Western Civ Has Got to Go" • 681

Reference Notes • 803

Index of Persons • 829

Index of Subjects • 853

IT TAKES ONLY a look at the numbers to see that the 20th century is coming

to an end. A wider and deeper scrutiny is needed to see that in the West the

culture of the last 500 years is ending at the same time. Believing this to be

true, I have thought it the right moment to review in sequence the great

achievements and the sorry failures of our half millennium.

This undertaking has also given me a chance to describe at first hand for

any interested posterity some aspects of present decadence that may have

escaped notice, and to show how they relate to others generally acknowledged.

But the lively and positive predominate: this book is for people who

like to read about art and thought, manners, morals, and religion, and the

social setting in which these activities have been and are taking place. I have

assumed that such readers prefer discourse to be selective and critical rather

than neutral and encyclopedic. And guessing further at their preference, I

have tried to write as I might speak, with only a touch of pedantry here and

there to show that I understand modern tastes.

Because the plan of the work is new, and thus unlike that of excellent histories

that might be named, special care has been given to the ordering of the

parts. Linking is particularly important in cultural history, because culture is a

web of many strands; none is spun by itself, nor is any cut off at a fixed date

like wars and regimes. Events that are commonly said to mark novelty in

thought or change of direction in culture are but emphatic signposts, not

boundary walls. I punctuate the course of my narrative with events of that

kind, but the divisions do not hang upon them. Rather, the chapter divisions

suggested themselves after rethinking the given past to find in it the clearest

patterns. They are framed by the four great revolutions—the religious,

monarchical, liberal, and social roughly a hundred years apart—whose aims

and passions still govern our minds and behavior.

During the writing of this book I was frequendy asked by friends and colleagues how long its preparation had taken. I could only answer: a lifetime. My studies of separate periods and figures, which began in the late 1920s, disclosed unexpected vistas and led to conclusions at variance with a number of accepted judgments. After further study and a review of what I had published, it seemed possible to shape my findings into a continuous tale. In it, as will appear, figures worth knowing emerge from obscurity and new features appear in others.

Familiar ideas are reassessed, particularly the notions in vogue today as to

where in the past our present merits and troubles come from.

I do not expect the reader to be steadily grateful. Nobody likes to hear a

rooted opinion challenged, and even less to see good reasons offered for a

principle or policy once in force and now universally condemned—for example,

the divine right of kings or religious persecution. Our age is so tolerant,

so broad-minded and disinclined to violence in its ideologies, that to find a

case made out for the temper of the 16th or 17th century is bound to affront

the righteous. Yet without exposure to this annoyance, one's understanding

of our modern thoughts and virtues is incomplete.

Not that I am in favor of royal masters or persecution or any other evil

supposedly outgrown. I cite these examples as a hint that I have not consulted

current prejudices. My own are enough to keep me busy as I aim at the historian's

detachment and sympathy. For if, as Ranke said, every period stands justified

in the sight of God, it deserves at least sympathy in the sight of Man.*

Claiming detachment need not raise the issue of objectivity. It is waste of

breath to point out that every observer is in some way biased. It does not follow

that bias cannot be guarded against, that all biases distort equally, or that

controlled bias remains as bad as propaganda. In dealing with the arts, for

example, it is being "objective" to detect one's blind spots—step one in detachment.

The second is to refrain from downgrading what one does not respond

to. One has then the duty to report the informed judgment of others.

Since some events and figures in our lengthy past strike me as different

from what they have seemed before, I must occasionally speak in my own

name and give reasons to justify the heresy. I can only hope that this accountability

will not tempt some reviewers to label the work "a very personal

book." I would ask them, What book worth reading is not? If Henry Adams

were the echo of Gibbon, we would not greatiy value the pastiche.

On this point of personality, William James concluded after reflection

that philosophers do not give us transcripts but visions of the world.

Similarly, historians give visions of the past. The good ones are not merely

plausible; they rest on a solid base of facts that nobody disputes. There is

nothing personal about facts, but there is about choosing and grouping them.

It is by the patterning and the meanings ascribed that the vision is conveyed.

And this, if anything, is what each historian adds to the general understanding.

Read more than one historian and the chances are good that you will

come closer and closer to the full complexity. Whoever wants an absolute

copy of what happened must gain access to the mind of God.

Speaking of meanings, I must say a word about the devices and symbols

used in the text; and first about the role of the quotations in the margins. They are meant to supply the "real self and voice" of the persons in the drama. In form, these extracts resemble the familiar "pull-outs" in magazines—sentences lifted out of the article to lure the reader. In this book they are not pull-outs but "add-ins." Their insertion without preamble helps to shorten the text by dispensing with the usual: "As Erasmus wrote to Henry VIII,..." "As Mark Twain said about Joan of Arc,..."; after which, more words are needed to sew up the cut. This small innovation also permits juxtaposition for contrast or emphasis. By the end, the reader may find that he has been treated to an anthology of choice morsels.

作者简介

普林斯敦大學余英時教授唯一親筆推薦的西洋文化史。如果你一輩子只看一本歷史書，就是這一本！◎ Amazon讀者四顆星強力推薦、美國邦諾書店Top100推薦、每月之書俱樂部選書，蟬連暢銷書排行榜達數月之久，紐約時報書評評為絕世之作。

◎ 入選美國國家圖書獎2000年度非小說好書。民主政體、社會主義、個人自由、女權運動、性解放、工業化社會、原子彈、網際網路──西方文明帶來的美德與罪惡，幾乎已經完全滲透全球每個人的生活，你可知道這一切從何開始？讓二十世紀碩果僅存的史學大師巴森帶你回到過去，細說西方文明如何在五百年中漸漸開花結果，帶來我們如今所見的世界；又如何盛極而衰，面臨再生的瓶頸......

巴森認為西方有四場「真正的革命」：宗教改革、君主集權、法國大革命、俄國革命；大師以此為主軸，詳述這些變革對思想與物質層面所帶來的衝擊，這些衝擊又如何交互作用出今日我們所見的世界。在巴森的流暢文筆之下，五百年的歷史故事也能像《紅樓夢》一樣，出場人物個個栩栩如生，「劇情」高潮迭起，無處不精彩！不論是名列史傳卻面目模糊的名士、或是名不見經傳的小人物，巴森都能還他們有血有肉的真面目；書中有爆炸性的大事件，也有乍看瑣碎卻寓意深遠的瑣事，經過大師提綱挈領，五百年來多不勝數的種種事件人物，逐漸融合成一幅屬於西方文明的立體圖像。

五百年時空之旅到了尾聲，巴森敏銳地指出現今面對的問題：除了科學與技術之外，文化發展似乎陷入停滯。文化進入衰退期了嗎？未來還有希望嗎？妙的是，五百多年前也曾有史學家預言歷史的結束......巴森怎麼說？打開這本書，走過五百年，你會發現整本書就是對這個問題的絕妙答案。

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