Summary of James Burnham's Suicide of the West

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The history atlas I found was similar to this one, published in 1921 but carried through only to 1929. It begins with maps of ancient Egypt under this, that, and the other dynasty and empire. Then it moves on to maps of Persia prior to 700 B. C. and Macedonia.

#2 The Western civilization, viewed through an unsentimental lens, can be seen to have dominated the world in the fifteenth century. It had burst from western Europe and the Mediterranean into Africa, Asia, the Americas, Oceania, and all the seas.

#3 The process of the political and geographic disintegration of the West began with Russia in 1917. What we mean by Western civilization may be defined in terms of the continuous development of a social formation that began in western Europe about the year A. D. 700.

#4 The shrinking of the West is a two-fold phenomenon that consists of the ending of Western dominion over a non-Western society and the ending of Western domination within a society and region that have been integral parts of Western civilization.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: May 11, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822511927

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

Book preview

Insights on James Burnham's Suicide of the West

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 15

Insights from Chapter 16

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The history atlas I found was similar to this one, published in 1921 but carried through only to 1929. It begins with maps of ancient Egypt under this, that, and the other dynasty and empire. Then it moves on to maps of Persia prior to 700 B. C. and Macedonia.

#2

The Western civilization, viewed through an unsentimental lens, can be seen to have dominated the world in the fifteenth century. It had burst from western Europe and the Mediterranean into Africa, Asia, the Americas, Oceania, and all the seas.

#3

The process of the political and geographic disintegration of the West began with Russia in 1917. What we mean by Western civilization may be defined in terms of the continuous development of a social formation that began in western Europe about the year A. D. 700.

#4

The shrinking of the West is a two-fold phenomenon that consists of the ending of Western dominion over a non-Western society and the ending of Western domination within a society and region that have been integral parts of Western civilization.

#5

The Western withdrawal is taking place, and it is happening from regions where Western civilization was not only dominant but integral as well. communism has not had the sole or major direct role in these regions, but it has still taken over and consolidated the territories, resources, and peoples inside its counter-system.

#6

The West is shrinking, and the amount of territory and people it rules has decreased. It is not self-evident that in shrinking quantitatively the West is morally deteriorating.

#7

The West has been contracting in size for the past two generations. So much, then, for my structural premise.

#8

The West has not been contracting because of any lack of economic resources or military power. The explanation cannot be attributed to any lack of physical resources or power. The West had a big enough population, a large enough extent of land, and plenty of strategic positions outside the inner Asiatic heartland.

#9

The West has contracted because its will to survive has been lacking. The West has the material means to maintain and even extend its overwhelming predominance, but it has not made use of those means.

#10

What Americans call liberalism is the ideology of Western suicide. I do not mean that liberalism is responsible for the