By Johan Huizinga

In the Shadow of Tomorrow, first published in 1936, is a commanding analysis of the Western world in the midst of modernity. Johan Huizinga, best known for his landmark studies The Waning of the Middle Ages and Homo Ludens, confronts the anxieties and afflictions of his time: the destruction and disease of war, the decay of art and culture, the emergent spiritual apathy of a world grown weary of itself. The symptoms and prognosis alike are grim. In Huizinga’s own words: “Everywhere there are doubts as to the solidity of our social structure, vague fears of the imminent future, a feeling that our civilization is on the way to ruin. They are not merely the shapeless anxieties which beset us in the small hours of the night when the flame of life burns low.”

Prophetic and powerful, In the Shadow of Tomorrow is a highly valuable treatment of the cultural deterioration in the decades prior to World War II. In examining the “modern distemper,” Huizinga provides a cogent diagnosis and remedy that still warrant attention today. 

The sense of living in the midst of a violent crisis of civilization, threatening complete collapse, has spread far and wide. (Johan Huizinga)

Johan Huizinga (1872–1945) was a Dutch historian, philosopher, and a founder of modern cultural history. He was professor of history at Gronigen University from 1905 to 1915 and at Leiden University from 1915 to 1942, when the Nazis imprisoned him in a concentration camp. Huizinga lived out his life in exile. His works in English include The Waning of the Middle Ages, Erasmus and the Age of Reformation, and Homo Ludens.

Paperback: 172pp.

ISBN: 978-1950970117