The Decline of the West 

(German: Der Untergang des Abendlandes), or The Downfall of

the Occident, is a two-volume work by Oswald Spengler. The first volume,
subtitled Form and Actuality, was published in the summer of 1918. The second
volume, subtitled Perspectives of World History, was published in 1922. The definitive
edition of both volumes was published in 1923.

Spengler introduces his book as a "Copernican overturning" involving the rejection of

the Eurocentric view of history, especially the division of history into the linear
"ancient-medieval-modern" rubric. 

According to Spengler, the meaningful units for history are not epochs but whole
cultures which evolve as organisms. He recognizes at least eight high cultures: 
Babylonian,  Egyptian,  Chinese,  Indian,  Mesoamerican  (Mayan /
Aztec), Classical (Greek/Roman), Arabian, and Western or European. Cultures have a
lifespan of about a thousand years of flourishing, and a thousand years of decline. The
final stage of each culture is, in his word use, a "civilization".

Spengler also presents the idea of Muslims, Jews and Christians, as well as

their Persian and Semitic forebears, being 'Magian'; Mediterranean cultures of
the antiquity such as Ancient Greece and Rome being 'Apollonian'; and
the modern Westerners being 'Faustian'.

According to Spengler, the Western world is ending and we are witnessing the last
season—"winter time"—of Faustian Civilization. In Spengler's depiction, Western Man
is a proud but tragic figure because, while he strives and creates, he secretly knows the
actual goal will never be reached.

Albert Toynbee

Albert Toynbee, in his monumental study of world history, used the concepts of
“Challenge and Response” to explain how civilizations rise and fall. He felt that
traditional explanations – environment, race, leadership, possession of land, access to
natural resources – were wrong or too narrow. Instead, he looked for the underlying
cause that explained societal success or failure. By “challenge” Toynbee meant some
unpredictable factor or event that posed a threat to the ways in which a group of people
had made their livelihood in the past. But “challenge” was not all negative. It carried in
it the germ of opportunity. “Response” was the action taken by the same group of
people to cope with the new situation. A challenge would arise as the result of many
things – population growth, exhaustion of a vital resource, climate change. It was
something that nobody had knowingly created. Response required vision, leadership,
and action to overcome the threat and create a basis for survival and, hopefully,
prosperity.