In the Shadow of Tomorrow A Diagnosis of the Modern Distemper
In the Shadow of Tomorrow, first published in 1936, is a commanding analysis of the Western world in the midst of modernity. Johan Huizinga, best known for his landmark studies The Waning of the Middle Ages and Homo Ludens, confronts the anxieties and afflictions of his time - the destruction and disease of war, the decay of art and culture, the emergent spiritual apathy of a world grown weary of itself. Huizinga writes, "Everywhere there are doubts as to the solidity of our social structure, vague fears of the imminent future, a feeling that our civilization is on the way to ruin. They are not merely the shapeless anxieties which beset us in the small hours of the night when the flame of life burns low." Prophetic and powerful, In the Shadow of Tomorrow is a highly valuable, historically significant treatment of the cultural deterioration in the decades prior to World War II. For, in examining the "modern distemper," Huizinga provides a cogent diagnosis and remedy that still warrant atttention today. -- Cover page 4