From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life by Jacques Barzun
The product of the author's lifetime, this powerful narrative, insterrsperses the author's analysis of wars, philosophy, science, manners, sex, religion, morals, art, et al, from the Reformation to the present day, with biographical sketches of influential historical figures. His conclusion is that the decadence of the current age is merely a watershed for a new age in which Western culture will again flourish.