
1. "A boundless mass of human Being, flowing in a stream without banks, upstream, a dark past wherein our time-sense loses all powers of definition and restless or uneasy fancy conjures up geological periods to hide away an eternally unsolvable riddle; downstream, a future even so dark and timeless -- such is the groundwork of the Faustian picture of human history." In this quotation Spengler is describing
~ In this quotation Spengler is describing humanity as having an unknown future and a past that can never be truly understood.
@ In this quotation Spengler is describing humanity as having an unknown future and a past that can never be truly understood.
*a. humanity as having an unknown future and a past that can never be truly understood.
b. humanity as a formless creature that has no history.
c. his critique of the use of geological time periods by paleontologists and geologists.
d. human history as a teleology in which Cultures will have to confront and defeat meaninglessness in order to reach its predestined end-state.

2. Spengler uses the metaphor of __________ to explain his understanding of historical development.
~ a plant
@ a plant
a. a stream
b. progress
*c. a plant
d. the Idea

3. In Spengler's plant-history metaphor, what is the fundamental unit of historical development?
~ the Culture that expresses its soul in unique ways (language, literature, art, architecture) derived from the "soil" in which it develops. 
@ the Culture that expresses its soul in unique ways (language, literature, art, architecture) derived from the "soil" in which it develops. Following Spengler's metaphor of a culture as a plant. a culture will continue to blossom until: It exhausts its full sum of possibilities in the shape of peoples, dogmas, art, et cetera.
a. the nation-state that expresses the unique spirit (geist) of a people.
*b. the Culture that expresses its soul in unique ways (language, literature, art, architecture) derived from the "soil" in which it develops. 
c. the Volk, the unique spirit (geist) of a people.
d. the Civilization, an elaborate branching network of customs, institutions, and artistic expressions that express a Hegelian Idea.

4. According to Spengler, what happens to a Culture once it "actualizes its Idea" in relation to the space in which it grows? 
~ The Culture is fully "matured" and "hardens" into a civilization. The language of "hardening" implies that a civilization is already on its way to decay: "...the Culture suddenly hardens, it mortifies, its blood congeals, its forces break down...."
@ The Culture is fully "matured" and "hardens" into a civilization. The language of "hardening" implies that a civilization is already on its way to decay: "...the Culture suddenly hardens, it mortifies, its blood congeals, its forces break down...."
*a. The Culture is fully "matured" and "hardens" into a civilization. The language of "hardening" implies that a civilization is already on its way to decay.
b. The Culture reaches its full, rosy maturity as a civilization, like a blossom. The language of "blossoming" implies that the stage of civilization is the height
c. The Culture has just begun to develop as it begins to achieve freedom for its inhabitants.
d. The Culture does not "actualize its Idea." That is Hegel's language, not Spengler's.

5. Spengler's view of history may have been influenced by
~ Spengler's view of history may have been influenced by the international tensions and conflicts that preceded World War I. Most historians dropped the belief in progress following the war. The world was supposed to be progressing towards improvement of the human condition, but Europeans used their technological and scientific advances to destroy one another.
@ Spengler's view of history may have been influenced by the international tensions and conflicts that preceded World War I. Most historians dropped the belief in progress following the war. The world was supposed to be progressing towards improvement of the human condition, but Europeans used their technological and scientific advances to destroy one another.
a. American Romantic era writers such as Edgar Allan Poe.
b. the rise of Nazism in Germany.
*c. the international tensions and conflicts that preceded World War I.
d. the high casualty rates and environmental destruction of World War I.

6. Which of the following describes how historians were likely to respond to Spengler's conception of history?
~ Historians influenced by Spengler would be most likely to detach themselves from teleologies of progress such as Hegelian Idealist historiography. Spengler's _Decline of the West_ became very popular in the 1920s, when fashionable Europeans quoted him and criticized the nineteenth-century belief in progress.
@ Historians influenced by Spengler would be most likely to detach themselves from teleologies of progress such as Hegelian Idealist historiography. Spengler's _Decline of the West_ became very popular in the 1920s, when fashionable Europeans quoted him and criticized the nineteenth-century belief in progress.
a. Historians influenced by Spengler would be most likely to resurrect the belief in objectivity and progress.
*b. Historians influenced by Spengler would be most likely to detach themselves from teleologies of progress such as Hegelian Idealist historiography.
c. Historians influenced by Spengler would be most likely to search for evidence of God's impact in history.
d. Historians influenced by Spengler would be most likely to study individual cultures in-depth in order to understand the end-goal of humanity.

7. Following the theme of his metaphors, Spengler believes that all cultures and their civilizations will eventually 
~ Following the theme of his metaphors, Spengler believes that all cultures and their civilizations will eventually die, leaving no lasting impact on humanity.
@ Following the theme of his metaphors, Spengler believes that all cultures and their civilizations will eventually die, leaving no lasting impact on humanity.
a. blossom to become the tree that takes sunlight from others.
*b. die.
c. achieve the ultimate realization of spirit: Civilization.
d. merge together into one great world culture.

8. Which of the following quotations best relates to Spengler's argument regarding the European notion of progress?
~ "This -- the inward and outward fulfillment, the finality, that awaits every living Culture -- is the purport of all the historic "declines," amongst them that decline of the Classical which we know so well and fully, and another decline, entirely comparable to it in course and duration, which will occupy the first centuries of the coming millennium."
@ "This -- the inward and outward fulfillment, the finality, that awaits every living Culture -- is the purport of all the historic "declines," amongst them that decline of the Classical which we know so well and fully, and another decline, entirely comparable to it in course and duration, which will occupy the first centuries of the coming millennium."
a. "It was thus that the Classical Civilization rose gigantic, in the Imperial age, with a false semblance of youth and strength and fullness, and robbed the young Arabian Culture of the East of light and air."
b. "A culture is born in the moment when a great soul awakes out of the protospirituality of ever-childish humanity, and detaches itself, a form from the formless, a bounded and mortal thing from the boundless and enduring."
c. "Over the expanse of the water pass the endless uniform ripples of the generations. Here and there bright shafts of light broaden out, everywhere dancing flashes confuse and disturb the clear mirror, changing, sparkling, vanishing. This is what we call the clans, tribes, peoples, races which unify a series of generations within this or that limited area of the historical surface."
*d. "This -- the inward and outward fulfillment, the finality, that awaits every living Culture -- is the purport of all the historic "declines," amongst them that decline of the Classical which we know so well and fully, and another decline, entirely comparable to it in course and duration, which will occupy the first centuries of the coming millennium."

9. In order to understand history, Spengler suggests
~ In order to understand history, Spengler suggests analyzing cultures in order to understand the primitive traits that underlie them all.
@ In order to understand history, Spengler suggests analyzing cultures in order to understand the primitive traits that underlie them all.
*a. analyzing cultures in order to understand the primitive traits that underlie them all.
b. a rigorous study of cultures that manage to rob others of "light and air," in order to understand how to acquire power.
c. focusing on the economic mode of production of a given culture.
d. applying scientific methods, such as Darwin's theory of evolution, to the analysis of culture.

10. "At present, however, we look in vain for any treatment of history that is entirely free from the methods of Darwinism -- that is, of a systematic natural science based on causality." In this quotation, Spengler is describing
~ In this quotation, Spengler is describing the search for an understanding of the motive forces in history, which he considers pointless.
@ In this quotation, Spengler is describing the search for an understanding of the motive forces in history, which he considers pointless.
a. the turmoil that is present in the vain search for meaning in history.
*b. the search for an understanding of the motive forces in history.
c. the disagreement he has with realist historians.
d. the natural end of all cultures.