Social and Cultural Dynamics, by Pitirim Aleksandrovich Sorokin, 4 volumes (HC, ex-lib., 1962, $25 for the set of 4, which is less than 1/3 the internet price.)
I. Fluctuation of Forms of Art
II. Fluctuation of Systems of Truth, Ethics, and Law
III. Fluctuation of Social Relationships, War, and Revolution
IV. Basic Problems, Principles, and Methods
From the preface:
"Considered objectively these volumes are an investigation of the nature and change, the dynamics of integrated culture: its types, its processes, its trends, fluctuations, rhythms, tempos...
But the possible decline of our present-day Sensate phase does not necessarily mean the end of the Western culture, any more than did the decay of medieval Ideationalism...
This explains why the possibility of the decline of the present cultural phase does not make me at all pessimistic. However profound the contemporary crisis may be- and it is infinitely deeper than most people recognize- after a trying transitory period, there looms not an abyss of death, but a mountain peak of life, with new horizons of creation and a fresh view of the eternal heavens."
Writing this in 1937, Sorokin was oh so wrong. Yet, even now, without hope, how can we go on?
Look for these books in the set section.
