Download or read book Ancients Against Moderns written by Joan DeJean and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1997-03-15 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the end of the 20th century approaches, many predict that it will mirror the 19th-century decline into decadence. The author of this text finds a closer analogy with the culture wars of France in the 1690s - the time of a battle of the books known as the Quarrel between the Ancients and Moderns.