Product Description

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #487733 in Books
• Published on: 1981-06-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 381 pages

Customer Reviews

Fantastic, Thought-Provoking Book
I picked up "Darwin, Marx, Wagner" at a used book store while in the middle of Barzun's latest tome "Dawn to Decadence." In "Darwin" a much younger Barzun argues with passion against the arrogant materialism prevalent at the turn of the century. "Nature is a sieve, and it works"--this is Barzun's pithy summary of Darwin, Marx and Wagner. For Darwin the sieve is kill-or-be-killed survival of the fittest, and "it works": humanity is the pinnacle of evolution (and not just the human species, but the most powerful of humanity). For Marx the sieve is an inevitable class struggle, which "works" when it produces a utopia for the working class. For Wagner the sieve will sift out all previous art forms in favor of his own pure self-important music drama. Read this book and consider the philosophical implications of realistic materialism and its cruel might-makes-right vision of progress--in science, politics and art.

Eminently worth reading
Just about anything written by Jacques Barzun ought to be read, and Darwin, Marx, and Wagner is no exception. Barzun is not so much unique as he is hoary - a man born in 1907 who could study the 19th century as fairly recent history. Barzun does a magnificent job of getting to the crux of the ideas behind these great events/documents of history. He strips away the common assumptions about groundbreaking work on the part of Darwin and Marx, and shows how they built extensively on the work of predecessors. Comments which deride Barzun as a conservative or hopelessly mired in the past completely misunderstand the purpose of his writing, or the his grasp of the subject. Of particular value are the final chapters after each thinker, summarizing their legacy, and where things stood after them. Barzun is the voice of experience, reason, and history.

Influence of philsophers of late 1800s on the 20th century
A brilliant book by an erudite, terse writer. A study of the changes wrought by three significant individuals of the latter half of the 1800s that have had a profound effect, good and bad, from the time of their writings through today. This is not light reading. One should be armed with an encyclopedia and a dictionary on this venture. To fully appreciate it be prepared to read the book again.

Alex R. Thomas Ph.D.