Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler (29 May 1880 – 8 May 1936) was a German
historian and
philosopher of history whose interests included mathematics, science, and art. He is best known for his book
The Decline of the West (
Der Untergang des Abendlandes), published in 1918 and 1922, covering all of world history. Spengler's civilization model postulates that any
civilization is a
superorganism with a limited and predictable lifespan.