First published in 1998. This is Volume III of nine in the historical sociology series focusing on the idea of a farewell to European history or the conquest of nihilism. It was written during the last phase of the war when it was clear that the war was turning into an event that would fundamentally affect the further course of history.

Chapter 1 The Uniqueness of the West; Chapter 2 The Loosening of Dogma and The Break-Through into the Depths1When Hermann Keyserling in a brilliant but unfortunately hitherto unpublished work throws light on the progress "from thought to the source of creativity" he is illuminating something other than the phenomenon we are concerned to represent, which has its roots in the historical stuff of the West-the phenomenon of the breakthrough to the immediate transcendental background of life. Transcendence in our sense is on a more earthly plane than the experience communicated by Keyserling.; Chapter 3 Redogmatization; Reflection; Isolation; Chapter 4 Dogmatism and Visionary Vistas; Chapter 5 Consummation and Destruction-The Nineteenth Century; Chapter 6 Nietzsche and the Catastrophe; Chapter 7 To-Day and the Task; Chapter 8 Intimations of Transcendence;