Un llibre molt influent a l'època va ser "Degeneració", de Max Nordau, que veia, a la cultura urbana moderna, una mena de procés que creia que conduiria al declivi d'Occident.
A deeply influential book at the time was Max Nordau's Degeneration, which saw, in modern urban culture, a kind of frantic pace that he believed would lead to the decline of the West.