Also possibly of interest (and even better for my money), Mr. Bloom’s own teacher, Leo Strauss, can be heard on tapes freely available for download at the Leo Strauss Center at U. of Chicago website.

As I recall, Spengler, a major early 20th century European historian, somehow never mentioned, except perhaps as a very brief and dismissive aside, in what I had thought was a very comprehensive undergraduate honors course in Historiography.

His is what might be called an “organic,” somewhat romantic, even mystical look at civilizations and their growth and decay, rather than a strictly analytical one, but–looking at the evidence–his predictions and views seem to be rather close fits.

Reading this very enlightening–and sobering–summary of his views and predictions, and seeing how they so clearly fit and explain contemporary America is pretty scary.

Never mind. 😉

Interesting that she’s just about the only person with leftist inclinations today who now and then dares to question the ways and the gods of the PC crowd.

To my surprise, I need not have hastened. Flash-forward a quarter-century. At this point, the mainstreamers will do whatever it takes to suppress a book, but it’s already too late — there are enough alternate outlets, including right-oriented publishers, that a book such as Bloom’s will not be buried.

But such a book ^will^ manage to be be buried with respect to the mainstream culture; recent Exhibit A, D’Souza’s 2012 book “2016”, letting the cat out of the bag regarding the incumbent president, then a candidate for reelection.

I remember his book helped sort out one insight – that open vs closed mind is independent of left or right politics.