The fame of German philosopher Oswald Spengler rests entirely upon his two-volume study Der Untergang des Abendlandes (1918-922) or The Decline of the West, 1926-928. It is a major contribution to social theory. Spengler was born in Blankenburg, Germany, on May 29, 1880, the son of a postal worker and the only surviving son among four children. The family moved to Halle, where Spengler attended a classical high school then universities in Munich and Berlin before returning to the University of Halle, where he earned a doctorate in 1904. His major subjects were mathematics and the sciences. Spengler taught at Saarbrücken, Düsseldorf, and Hamburg, before moving to Munich in 1911 after a small inheritance from his mother's estate allowed him to become a private scholar. Spengler was never in good health--he had a heart condition and suffered from headaches--so he was exempt from military service.

With the outbreak...