/lit/ - Literature

>>9865939
-Highly-readable - the author specifically avoids involuted jargon and aims for clarity.

-No real "pretenses" - just a lengthy survey of western history from several angles and periods of time, gradually threading the book with the main ideas about western history and its direction.

-A very rich pastiche of references to other works, thinkers, writers, theorists, etc. from a range of different fields as he tells the story, with illustrative quotes pulled to the side of the text as highlights.

-Resolutely defies easy summary, since it is a sociocultural, political, philosophical, and aesthetic survey of five centuries.

-Very much layered - casual thinkers/readers will learn plenty; more educated readers will be familiar with more of his references and will understand more of how he constructed his approach to the history of ideas.