The Degeneration of Societies according to Max Nordau (1893)

On the occasion of the recent French republication (Paris: Éditions Max Milo, 2006) of the most famous and, no doubt, most controversial of the works of Max Nordau, Degeneration, Bernard Cazes offers here a brief study in the “future of yesteryear” style.
In 1894, Max Nordau (1849-1923) presented his work in the following terms: “I have undertaken the work of investigating… the tendencies of the fashions in art and literature; of proving that they have their source in the degeneracy of their authors, and that the enthusiasm of their admirers is for manifestations of more or less pronounced moral insanity, imbecility and dementia” (Degeneration, London: Heinemann, 1920, p. viii). As Bernard Cazes shows here, Nordau passed a decidedly severe judgement on the intellectuals and artists of his day, which has, in most respects, proved to be erroneous. Nevertheless, this rather disconcerting book on the decline of the West does contain some quite visionary passages on 20th-century society and ways of life.