1.
History of the world
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The history of the world describes the history of humanity as determined by the study of archaeological and written records, beginning with the invention of writing. The latter period marked a change in history, as humans began the systematic husbandry of plants. Agriculture advanced, and most humans transitioned from a nomadic to a lifestyle as farmers in permanent settlements. As farming developed, grain agriculture became more sophisticated and prompted a division of labour to store food between growing seasons, labour divisions then led to the rise of a leisured upper class and the development of cities. The growing complexity of human societies necessitated systems of writing and accounting, in the mid-15th century, the invention of modern printing, employing movable type, revolutionized communication, helping end the Middle Ages and ushering in the Scientific Revolution. By the 18th century, the accumulation of knowledge and technology, outside the Old World, including ancient China and ancient India, historical timelines unfolded differently. However, by the 18th century, due to world trade and colonization. Genetic measurements indicate that the ape lineage which would lead to Homo sapiens diverged from the lineage that would lead to chimpanzees around six years ago. It is thought that the Australopithecine genus, which were likely the first apes to walk upright, anatomically modern humans arose in Africa about 200,000 years ago, and reached behavioural modernity about 50,000 years ago. Modern humans spread rapidly from Africa into the frost-free zones of Europe, the rapid expansion of humankind to North America and Oceania took place at the climax of the most recent ice age, when temperate regions of today were extremely inhospitable. Yet, humans had colonized nearly all the parts of the globe by the end of the Ice Age. Other hominids such as Homo erectus had been using simple wood and stone tools for millennia, at some point, humans began using fire for heat and cooking. They also developed language in the Palaeolithic period and a repertoire that included systematic burial of the dead. Early artistic expression can be found in the form of paintings and sculptures made from wood and bone, showing a spirituality generally interpreted as animism. During this period, all lived as hunter-gatherers, and were generally nomadic. The Neolithic Revolution, beginning about 8,000 BCE, saw the development of agriculture, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution. Farming permitted far denser populations, which in time organized into states, agriculture also created food surpluses that could support people not directly engaged in food production. The development of agriculture permitted the creation of the first cities and these were centres of trade, manufacturing and political power with nearly no agricultural production of their own
2.
World History (album)
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World History was a compilation album by Christian rock band Mad at the World. It highlighted songs from their first six albums, but not their last one. In 1998, KMG Records released World History, a collection of songs from the first six albums and it downplayed the heavy guitars and brought to the forefront the picturesque vocal flair of Roger Rose. In the liner notes it states, The unifying thread is the Rose brothers great writing, vocals, arrangements, writing for Phantom Tollbooth, Sam Hagadorn listed it as one of his ten best albums of 1998. Both the Phantom Tollbooth and HM Magazine have referenced the disc as having re-recorded songs, from the day mailman and lead singer Roger Rose stuck a tape in a record company executives mailbox until current times, Mad at the World has turned heads with their provocative music. Their progression from keyboard driven angst to wall of social awareness is captured in this collection. The unifying thread is the Rose brothers great writing, vocals, arrangements, sit back and enjoy this album retrospective of Mad at the Worlds history
3.
Historiography
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Historiography is the study of the methods of historians in developing history as an academic discipline, and by extension is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific topic covers how historians have studied that topic using particular sources, techniques, beginning in the nineteenth century, with the ascent of academic history, there developed a body of historiographic literature. The extent to which historians are influenced by their own groups, in 2007, of 5,723 faculty in the departments of history at British universities,1,644 identified themselves with social history and 1,425 identified themselves with political history. In the early period, the term historiography meant the writing of history. In that sense certain official historians were given the title Historiographer Royal in Sweden, England, the Scottish post is still in existence. Understanding the past appears to be a human need. What constitutes history is a philosophical question, the earliest chronologies date back to Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, though no historical writers in these early civilizations were known by name. For the purposes of article, history is taken to mean written history recorded in a narrative format for the purpose of informing future generations about events. Before writing, there was only oral history or oral tradition, in China, the earliest history was recorded in oracle bone script which was deciphered and may date back to around late 2nd millennium BCE. The Zuo Zhuan, attributed to Zuo Qiuming in the 5th century BCE, is the earliest written of narrative history in the world, the Classic of History is one of the Five Classics of Chinese classic texts and one of the earliest narratives of China. It is traditionally attributed to Confucius, zhan Guo Ce was a renowned ancient Chinese historical compilation of sporadic materials on the Warring States period compiled between the 3rd and 1st centuries BCE. Sima Qian was the first in China to lay the groundwork for professional historical writing and his written work was the Shiji, a monumental lifelong achievement in literature. His work influenced every subsequent author of history in China, including the prestigious Ban family of the Eastern Han Dynasty era, traditional Chinese historiography describes history in terms of dynastic cycles. In this view, each new dynasty is founded by a morally righteous founder, over time, the dynasty becomes morally corrupt and dissolute. Eventually, the dynasty becomes so weak as to allow its replacement by a new dynasty, the tradition of Korean historiography was established with the Samguk Sagi, a history of Korea from its allegedly earliest times. It was compiled by Goryeo court historian Kim Busik after its commission by King Injong of Goryeo. It was completed in 1145 and relied not only on earlier Chinese histories for source material, the latter work is now lost. The earliest works of history produced in Japan were the Rikkokushi, the first of these works were the Nihon Shoki, compiled by Prince Toneri in 720
4.
History
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History is the study of the past as it is described in written documents. Events occurring before written record are considered prehistory and it is an umbrella term that relates to past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of information about these events. Scholars who write about history are called historians and their works continue to be read today, and the gap between the culture-focused Herodotus and the military-focused Thucydides remains a point of contention or approach in modern historical writing. In Asia, a chronicle, the Spring and Autumn Annals was known to be compiled from as early as 722 BC although only 2nd-century BC texts survived. Ancient influences have helped spawn variant interpretations of the nature of history which have evolved over the centuries, the modern study of history is wide-ranging, and includes the study of specific regions and the study of certain topical or thematical elements of historical investigation. Often history is taught as part of primary and secondary education, the word history comes ultimately from Ancient Greek ἱστορία, meaning inquiry, knowledge from inquiry, or judge. It was in that sense that Aristotle used the word in his Περὶ Τὰ Ζῷα Ἱστορίαι, the ancestor word ἵστωρ is attested early on in Homeric Hymns, Heraclitus, the Athenian ephebes oath, and in Boiotic inscriptions. History was borrowed from Latin into Old English as stær, and it was from Anglo-Norman that history was borrowed into Middle English, and this time the loan stuck. In Middle English, the meaning of history was story in general, the restriction to the meaning the branch of knowledge that deals with past events, the formal record or study of past events, esp. human affairs arose in the mid-fifteenth century. With the Renaissance, older senses of the word were revived, and it was in the Greek sense that Francis Bacon used the term in the sixteenth century. For him, historia was the knowledge of objects determined by space and time, in an expression of the linguistic synthetic vs. analytic/isolating dichotomy, English like Chinese now designates separate words for human history and storytelling in general. In modern German, French, and most Germanic and Romance languages, which are synthetic and highly inflected. The adjective historical is attested from 1661, and historic from 1669, Historian in the sense of a researcher of history is attested from 1531. Historians write in the context of their own time, and with due regard to the current dominant ideas of how to interpret the past, in the words of Benedetto Croce, All history is contemporary history. History is facilitated by the formation of a discourse of past through the production of narrative. The modern discipline of history is dedicated to the production of this discourse. All events that are remembered and preserved in some authentic form constitute the historical record, the task of historical discourse is to identify the sources which can most usefully contribute to the production of accurate accounts of past. Therefore, the constitution of the archive is a result of circumscribing a more general archive by invalidating the usage of certain texts and documents
5.
Pattern
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A pattern, apart from the terms use to mean Template, is a discernible regularity in the world or in a manmade design. As such, the elements of a repeat in a predictable manner. A geometric pattern is a kind of pattern formed of geometric shapes, any of the senses may directly observe patterns. Conversely, abstract patterns in science, mathematics, or language may be only by analysis. Direct observation in practice means seeing visual patterns, which are widespread in nature, visual patterns in nature are often chaotic, never exactly repeating, and often involve fractals. Natural patterns include spirals, meanders, waves, foams, tilings, cracks, Patterns have an underlying mathematical structure, indeed, mathematics can be seen as the search for regularities, and the output of any function is a mathematical pattern. Similarly in the sciences, theories explain and predict regularities in the world, in art and architecture, decorations or visual motifs may be combined and repeated to form patterns designed to have a chosen effect on the viewer. In computer science, a design pattern is a known solution to a class of problems in programming. In fashion, the pattern is a used to create any number of similar garments. Nature provides examples of many kinds of pattern, including symmetries, trees and other structures with a dimension, spirals, meanders, waves, foams, tilings, cracks. Symmetry is widespread in living things, animals that move usually have bilateral or mirror symmetry as this favours movement. Plants often have radial or rotational symmetry, as do many flowers, as well as animals which are largely static as adults, fivefold symmetry is found in the echinoderms, including starfish, sea urchins, and sea lilies. Among non-living things, snowflakes have striking sixfold symmetry, each flake is unique, crystals have a highly specific set of possible crystal symmetries, they can be cubic or octahedral, but cannot have fivefold symmetry. Many natural patterns are shaped by this apparent randomness, including vortex streets, waves are disturbances that carry energy as they move. Mechanical waves propagate through a medium – air or water, making it oscillate as they pass by, wind waves are surface waves that create the chaotic patterns of the sea. As they pass over sand, such waves create patterns of ripples, similarly, as the passes over sand. Foams obey Plateaus laws, which films to be smooth and continuous. Foam and bubble patterns occur widely in nature, for example in radiolarians, sponge spicules, cracks form in materials to relieve stress, with 120 degree joints in elastic materials, but at 90 degrees in inelastic materials
6.
Salzburg
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Salzburg is the fourth-largest city in Austria and the capital of the federal state of Salzburg. Salzburgs Old Town is internationally renowned for its architecture and is one of the best-preserved city centers north of the Alps. It was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, the city has three universities and a large population of students. Tourists also visit Salzburg to tour the historic center and the scenic Alpine surroundings, Salzburg was the birthplace of 18th-century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In the mid‑20th century, the city was the setting for the musical play, traces of human settlements have been found in the area, dating to the Neolithic Age. The first settlements in Salzburg continuous with the present were apparently by the Celts around the 5th century BC, around 15 BC the Roman Empire merged the settlements into one city. At this time, the city was called Juvavum and was awarded the status of a Roman municipium in 45 AD, Juvavum developed into an important town of the Roman province of Noricum. After the Norican frontiers collapse, Juvavum declined so sharply that by the late 7th century it became a ruin. The Life of Saint Rupert credits the 8th-century saint with the citys rebirth, when Theodo of Bavaria asked Rupert to become bishop c. 700, Rupert reconnoitered the river for the site of his basilica, Rupert chose Juvavum, ordained priests, and annexed the manor Piding. He traveled to evangelise among pagans, the name Salzburg means Salt Castle. The name derives from the barges carrying salt on the Salzach River, the Festung Hohensalzburg, the citys fortress, was built in 1077 by Archbishop Gebhard, who made it his residence. It was greatly expanded during the following centuries, independence from Bavaria was secured in the late 14th century. Salzburg was the seat of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, a prince-bishopric of the Holy Roman Empire, as the reformation movement gained steam, riots broke out among peasants in the areas in and around Salzburg. The city was occupied during the German Peasants War, and the archbishop had to flee to the safety of the fortress It was besieged for three months in 1525. It was in the 17th century that Italian architects rebuilt the city center as it is today along with many palaces,21,475 citizens refused to recant their beliefs and were expelled from Salzburg. Most of them accepted an offer by King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, the rest settled in other Protestant states in Europe and the British colonies in America. In 1772–1803, under archbishop Hieronymus Graf von Colloredo, Salzburg was a centre of late Illuminism, in 1803, the archbishopric was secularised by Emperor Napoleon, he transferred the territory to Ferdinando III of Tuscany, former Grand Duke of Tuscany, as the Electorate of Salzburg
7.
Pitirim Sorokin
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Pitirim Alexandrovich Sorokin was a Russian American sociologist born in modern-day Komi Republic of Russia. An academic and political activist, he emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States in 1923, in 1930, at the age of 40, Sorokin was personally requested by the president of Harvard University to accept a position there. At Harvard, he founded the Department of Sociology and he was a vocal critic of his colleague Talcott Parsons. Sorokin was an ardent opponent of Communism, which he regarded as a pest of man and he is best known for his contributions to the social cycle theory. Pitirim Sorokin was born to a Russian father and Komi mother in the village of Turja. In the early 1900s, supporting himself as an artisan and clerk, Sorokin attended the Saint Petersburg Imperial University where he earned his degree in criminology. Sorokin was an anti-communist, during the Russian Revolution he was a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and this was also the time he met and married Dr. Helen Baratynskaya, with whom he would later have two sons. During the Russian Revolution, Sorokin was a secretary to Prime Minister Alexander Kerensky who was a leader in the Russian Constituent Assembly. After the October Revolution, Sorokin continued to fight communist leaders, after six weeks in prison, he was set free and went back to teaching at the University of St. Petersburg. In 1918, he went on to become the founder of the department at the University of St. Petersburg. In 1922, Sorokin was again arrested and this time exiled by the Soviet Government and he emigrated in 1923 to the United States and was naturalized in 1930. Sorokin was professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota and at Harvard University, in 1950, Sorokin published an addendum to the book called The Thirty Years After. It is a personal and brutally honest account of the revolution, sorokins academic writings are extensive, he wrote 37 books and more than 400 articles. His controversial theories of social process and the typology of cultures are expounded in Social and Cultural Dynamics. Sorokin was also interested in social stratification, the history of sociological theory, sorokins work addressed three major theories, social differentiation, social stratification and social conflict. The theory of social differentiation describes three types of societal relationships, the first is familistic, which is the type that we would generally strive for. It is the relationship that has the most solidarity, the values of everyone involved are considered, Social stratification refers to the fact that all societies are hierarchically divided, with upper and lower strata and unequal distribution of wealth, power, and influence across strata. There is always some mobility between these strata, people or groups may move up or down the hierarchy, acquiring or losing their power and influence
8.
Arnold J. Toynbee
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Toynbee in the 1918–1950 period was a leading specialist on international affairs. He is best known for his 12-volume A Study of History, with his prodigious output of papers, articles, speeches and presentations, and numerous books translated into many languages, Toynbee was a widely read and discussed scholar in the 1940s and 1950s. Toynbee was the son of Harry Valpy Toynbee, secretary of the Charity Organization Society, Toynbee was the grandson of Joseph Toynbee, nephew of the 19th-century economist Arnold Toynbee and descendant of prominent British intellectuals for several generations. In 1912 he became a tutor and fellow in ancient history at Balliol College, after serving as a delegate to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 he served as professor of Byzantine and modern Greek studies at the University of London. From 1921 to 1922 he was the Manchester Guardian correspondent during the Greco-Turkish War, in 1925 he became research professor of international history at the London School of Economics and director of studies at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London. His first marriage was to Rosalind Murray, daughter of Gilbert Murray, in 1913 and they divorced in 1946, Toynbee then married his research assistant, Veronica M. Boulter, in the same year. He died on 22 October 1975, age 86, Michael Lang says that for much of the twentieth century, Toynbee was perhaps the world’s most read, translated, and discussed living scholar. His output was enormous, hundreds of books, pamphlets, in his best-known work, A Study of History, published 1934–1961, Toynbee. A Study of History was both a commercial and academic phenomenon, in the U. S. alone, more than seven thousand sets of the ten-volume edition had been sold by 1955. Most people, including scholars, relied on the very clear one-volume abridgement of the first six volumes by Somervell, which appeared in 1947, the press printed innumerable discussions of Toynbees work, not to mention there being countless lectures and seminars. Canadian historians were especially receptive to Toynbees work in the late 1940s, the Canadian economic historian Harold Adams Innis was a notable example. Following Toynbee and others, Innis examined the flourishing of civilizations in terms of administration of empires, Toynbees overall theory was taken up by some scholars, for example, Ernst Robert Curtius, as a sort of paradigm in the post-war period. Curtius wrote as follows in the pages of European Literature. Curtius wrote, How do cultures, and the entities which are their media, arise, grow. Only a comparative morphology with exact procedures can hope to answer these questions and it was Arnold J. Toynbee who undertook the task. After 1960, Toynbees ideas faded both in academia and the media, to the point of seldom being cited today, however, his work continued to be referenced by classical historians, at least, because his training and surest touch is in the world of classical antiquity. His roots in literature are also manifested by similarities between his approach and that of classical historians such as Herodotus and Thucydides. Comparative history, by which his approach is often categorized, has been in the doldrums, Toynbee worked for the Political Intelligence Department of the British Foreign Office during World War I and served as a delegate to the Paris Peace Conference in 1919
9.
Cambridge University Press
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Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the worlds oldest publishing house and it also holds letters patent as the Queens Printer. The Presss mission is To further the Universitys mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning, Cambridge University Press is a department of the University of Cambridge and is both an academic and educational publisher. With a global presence, publishing hubs, and offices in more than 40 countries. Its publishing includes journals, monographs, reference works, textbooks. Cambridge University Press is an enterprise that transfers part of its annual surplus back to the university. Cambridge University Press is both the oldest publishing house in the world and the oldest university press and it originated from Letters Patent granted to the University of Cambridge by Henry VIII in 1534, and has been producing books continuously since the first University Press book was printed. Cambridge is one of the two privileged presses, authors published by Cambridge have included John Milton, William Harvey, Isaac Newton, Bertrand Russell, and Stephen Hawking. In 1591, Thomass successor, John Legate, printed the first Cambridge Bible, the London Stationers objected strenuously, claiming that they had the monopoly on Bible printing. The universitys response was to point out the provision in its charter to print all manner of books. In July 1697 the Duke of Somerset made a loan of £200 to the university towards the house and presse and James Halman, Registrary of the University. It was in Bentleys time, in 1698, that a body of scholars was appointed to be responsible to the university for the Presss affairs. The Press Syndicates publishing committee still meets regularly, and its role still includes the review, John Baskerville became University Printer in the mid-eighteenth century. Baskervilles concern was the production of the finest possible books using his own type-design, a technological breakthrough was badly needed, and it came when Lord Stanhope perfected the making of stereotype plates. This involved making a mould of the surface of a page of type. The Press was the first to use this technique, and in 1805 produced the technically successful, under the stewardship of C. J. Clay, who was University Printer from 1854 to 1882, the Press increased the size and scale of its academic and educational publishing operation. An important factor in this increase was the inauguration of its list of schoolbooks, during Clays administration, the Press also undertook a sizable co-publishing venture with Oxford, the Revised Version of the Bible, which was begun in 1870 and completed in 1885. It was Wright who devised the plan for one of the most distinctive Cambridge contributions to publishing—the Cambridge Histories, the Cambridge Modern History was published between 1902 and 1912
10.
History of China
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Written records of the history of China can be found from as early as 1500 BC under the Shang dynasty. Ancient historical texts such as the Records of the Grand Historian and the Bamboo Annals describe a Xia dynasty, with thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the worlds oldest civilizations, and is regarded as one of the cradles of civilization. Much of Chinese culture, literature and philosophy developed during the Zhou dynasty. This is one of multiple periods of failed statehood in Chinese history, between eras of multiple kingdoms and warlordism, Chinese dynasties have ruled parts or all of China, in some eras control stretched as far as Xinjiang and Tibet, as at present. In 221 BC Qin Shi Huang united the warring kingdoms and created for himself the title of emperor of the Qin dynasty. Successive dynasties developed bureaucratic systems that enabled the emperor to control vast territories directly, in the 21 centuries from 206 BC until AD1912, routine administrative tasks were handled by a special elite, the Scholar-officials. Young men were selected through difficult examinations and were well-versed in calligraphy and philosophy. What is now China was inhabited by Homo erectus more than a million years ago, recent study shows that the stone tools found at Xiaochangliang site are magnetostratigraphically dated to 1.36 million years ago. The archaeological site of Xihoudu in Shanxi Province is the earliest recorded use of fire by Homo erectus, the excavations at Yuanmou and later Lantian show early habitation. Perhaps the most famous specimen of Homo erectus found in China is the so-called Peking Man discovered in 1923–27, fossilised teeth of Homo sapiens dating to 125, 000–80,000 BC have been discovered in Fuyan Cave in Dao County in Hunan. The Neolithic age in China can be traced back to about 10,000 BC, Early evidence for proto-Chinese millet agriculture is radiocarbon-dated to about 7000 BC. The earliest evidence of cultivated rice, found by the Yangtze River, is carbon-dated to 8,000 years ago, farming gave rise to the Jiahu culture. At Damaidi in Ningxia,3,172 cliff carvings dating to 6000–5000 BC have been discovered, featuring 8,453 individual characters such as the sun, moon, stars, gods and these pictographs are reputed to be similar to the earliest characters confirmed to be written Chinese. Chinese proto-writing existed in Jiahu around 7000 BC, Dadiwan from 5800 BC to 5400 BC, Damaidi around 6000 BC, some scholars have suggested that Jiahu symbols were the earliest Chinese writing system. With agriculture came increased population, the ability to store and redistribute crops, Later, Yangshao culture was superseded by the Longshan culture, which was also centered on the Yellow River from about 3000 BC to 2000 BC. Bronze artifacts have been found at the Majiayao culture site, The Bronze Age is also represented at the Lower Xiajiadian culture site in northeast China. Sanxingdui located in what is now Sichuan province is believed to be the site of a ancient city. The site was first discovered in 1929 and then re-discovered in 1986, Chinese archaeologists have identified the Sanxingdui culture to be part of the ancient kingdom of Shu, linking the artifacts found at the site to its early legendary kings
11.
East Asia
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East Asia is the eastern subregion of the Asian continent, which can be defined in either geographical or ethno-cultural terms. Geographically and geopolitically, it includes China, Taiwan, Mongolia, Korea and Japan, it covers about 12,000,000 km2, or about 28% of the Asian continent, the East Asian people comprise more than 1.5 billion people. About 38% of the population of Asia and 22%, or over one fifth, the overall population density of the region is 133 inhabitants per square kilometre, about three times the world average of 45/km2. Historically, societies in East Asia have been part of the Chinese cultural sphere, major religions include Buddhism, Confucianism or Neo-Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese folk religion in China and Taiwan, Shinto in Japan, Korean shamanism in Korea. Shamanism is also prevalent among Mongolians and other populations of northern East Asia. The Chinese calendar is the root from which many other East Asian calendars are derived, Chinese Dynasties dominated the region in matters of culture, trade, and exploration as well as militarily for a very long time. There are records of tributes sent overseas from the kingdoms of Korea. There were also considerable levels of cultural and religious exchange between the Chinese and other regional Dynasties and Kingdoms, as connections began to strengthen with the Western world, Chinas power began to diminish. Around the same time, Japan solidified itself as a nation state, throughout World War II, Korea, Taiwan, much of eastern China, Hong Kong, and Vietnam all fell under Japanese control. Culturally, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam are commonly seen as being encompassed by cultural East Asia, there are mixed debates around the world whether these countries or regions should be considered in East Asia or not. Vietnam Siberia in Russia Sovereignty issues exist over some territories in the South China Sea, however, in this context, the term Far East is often more appropriate which covers ASEAN countries and the countries in East Asia. However, being a Eurocentric term, Far East describes the geographical position in relation to Europe rather than its location within Asia. Alternatively, the term Asia Pacific Region is often used in describing East Asia and this usage, which is seen in economic and diplomatic discussions, is at odds with the historical meanings of both East Asia and Northeast Asia. The Council on Foreign Relations defines Northeast Asia as Japan and Korea, the military and economic superpower of China became the largest economy in the world in 2014, surpassing the United States of America. Currently in East Asia, trading systems are open, and zero or low duties on imports of consumer and capital goods etc. have considerably helped stimulate cost-efficiency. Free and flexible labor and other markets are important factors making for high levels of business-economic performance. East Asian populations have demonstrated highly positive work ethics, there are relatively large and fast-growing markets for consumer goods and services of all kinds. The culture of East Asia has been influenced by the civilisation of China, East Asia, as well as Vietnam, share a Confucian ethical philosophy, Buddhism, political and legal structures, and historically a common writing system
12.
Sima Qian
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Sima Qian, formerly romanized Ssu-ma Chien, was a Chinese historian of the Han dynasty. Sima Qian was born at Xiayang in Zuopingyi around 145 BC, Simas precise year of birth is still debated, but it is generally agreed that he lived most of his life during the reign of the Emperor Wu whose long reign lasted from 141-87 BC. His father, Sima Tan, around 136 BC received an appointment to the relatively low-ranking position of grand historian. The grand historians primary duty was to formulate the yearly calendar, identifying which days were ritually auspicious or inauspicious, and present it to the emperor prior to New Years Day. Besides these duties, the historian was also to travel with the emperor for important rituals. By his account, by the age of ten Sima was able to read the old writings and was considered to be a promising scholar, Sima grew up in a Confucian environment, and Sima always regarded his historical work as an act of Confucian filial piety to his father. In 126 BC, around the age of twenty, Sima Qian began a tour around China as it existed in the Han dynasty. He then went to seek the place of the legendary Xia dynasty rulers Yu on Mount Kuaiji. He then went north to Huaiyin to see the grave of Han dynasty general Han Xin, then continued north to Qufu, the hometown of Confucius, where he studied ritual and other traditional subjects. After his travels, Sima was chosen to be a Palace Attendant in the government, Sima married young and had one daughter. In 110 BC, at the age of thirty-five, Sima Qian was sent westward on an expedition against some barbarian tribes. That year, his father ill and could not attend the Imperial Feng Sacrifice. Suspecting his time was running out, he summoned his son home to complete the historical work he had begun. Sima Tan wanted to follow the Annals of Spring and Autumn - the first chronicle in the history of Chinese literature, fueled by his fathers inspiration, Sima Qian started to compile Shiji, which became known in English as the Records of the Grand Historian, in 109 BC. Three years after the death of his father, Sima Qian assumed his fathers position as Court Astrologer. In 105 BC, Sima was among the chosen to reform the calendar. As a senior official, Sima was also in the position to offer counsel to the emperor on general affairs of state. In 99 BC, Sima Qian became embroiled in the Li Ling affair, Emperor Wu attributed the defeat to Li Ling, with all government officials subsequently condemning him for it
13.
Ancient Greece
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Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th-9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and this was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedonia, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the end of the Mediterranean Sea. Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a influence on ancient Rome. For this reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture and is considered the cradle of Western civilization. Classical Antiquity in the Mediterranean region is considered to have begun in the 8th century BC. Classical Antiquity in Greece is preceded by the Greek Dark Ages and this period is succeeded, around the 8th century BC, by the Orientalizing Period during which a strong influence of Syro-Hittite, Jewish, Assyrian, Phoenician and Egyptian cultures becomes apparent. The end of the Dark Ages is also dated to 776 BC. The Archaic period gives way to the Classical period around 500 BC, Ancient Periods Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details The history of Greece during Classical Antiquity may be subdivided into five major periods. The earliest of these is the Archaic period, in which artists made larger free-standing sculptures in stiff, the Archaic period is often taken to end with the overthrow of the last tyrant of Athens and the start of Athenian Democracy in 508 BC. It was followed by the Classical period, characterized by a style which was considered by observers to be exemplary, i. e. classical, as shown in the Parthenon. This period saw the Greco-Persian Wars and the Rise of Macedon, following the Classical period was the Hellenistic period, during which Greek culture and power expanded into the Near and Middle East. This period begins with the death of Alexander and ends with the Roman conquest, Herodotus is widely known as the father of history, his Histories are eponymous of the entire field. Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato, most of these authors were either Athenian or pro-Athenian, which is why far more is known about the history and politics of Athens than those of many other cities. Their scope is limited by a focus on political, military and diplomatic history, ignoring economic. In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, literacy had been lost and Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. The Lelantine War is the earliest documented war of the ancient Greek period and it was fought between the important poleis of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea. Both cities seem to have suffered a decline as result of the long war, a mercantile class arose in the first half of the 7th century BC, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC
14.
Herodotus
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Herodotus was a Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus in the Persian Empire and lived in the fifth century BC, a contemporary of Socrates. The Histories is the work which he is known to have produced. Despite Herodotus historical significance, little is known of his personal life and his place in history and his significance may be understood according to the traditions within which he worked. His work is the earliest Greek prose to have survived intact, of these only fragments of Hecataeuss work survive yet they allow us glimpses into the kind of tradition within which Herodotus wrote his own Histories. In his introduction to Hecataeus’s work, Genealogies, This points forward to the ‘folksy’ yet ‘international’ outlook typical of Herodotus. Yet, one scholar has described the work of Hecataeus as “a curious false start to history” since despite his critical spirit. It is possible that Herodotus borrowed much material from Hecataeus, as stated by Porphyry in a recorded by Eusebius. But Hecataeus did not record events that had occurred in living memory, unlike Herodotus, Herodotus claims to be better informed than his predecessors by relying on empirical observation to correct their excessive schematism. For example, He argues for continental asymmetry as opposed to the theory of a perfectly circular earth with Europe. Yet, he retains idealizing tendencies, as in his notions of the Danube. His debt to previous authors of prose ‘histories’ might be questionable, however, this point is one of the most contentious issues in modern scholarship. It is on account of the strange stories and the folk-tales he reported that his critics in early modern times branded him “The Father of Lies”. Even his own contemporaries found reason to scoff at his achievement, similarly, the Athenian historian Thucydides dismissed Herodotus as a “logos-writer”. Moreover, Thucydides developed a historical topic more in keeping with the Greek world-view, the interplay of civilizations was more relevant to Greeks living in Anatolia, such as Herodotus himself, for whom life within a foreign civilization was a recent memory. Modern scholars generally turn to Herodotus’s own writing for reliable information about his life, supplemented with ancient yet much later sources, modern accounts of his life typically go something like this, Herodotus was born at Halicarnassus around 484 BC. His name is not mentioned later in the tribute list of the Athenian Delian League, the epic poet Panyassis – a relative of Herodotus – is reported to have taken part in a failed uprising. Herodotus expresses affection for the island of Samos, and this is an indication that he might have lived there in his youth. So it is possible that his family was involved in an uprising against Lygdamis, leading to a period of exile on Samos, Herodotus wrote his Histories in the Ionian dialect, yet he was born in Halicarnassus, which was a Dorian settlement
15.
Thucydides
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Thucydides was an Athenian historian and general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC and his text is still studied at both universities and military colleges worldwide. The Melian dialogue remains a work of international relations theory while Pericles Funeral Oration is widely studied in political theory, history. More generally, Thucydides showed an interest in developing an understanding of nature to explain behaviour in such crises as plague, massacres, as in that of the Melians. In spite of his stature as a historian, modern historians know relatively little about Thucydidess life, the most reliable information comes from his own History of the Peloponnesian War, which expounds his nationality, paternity and native locality. Thucydides informs us that he fought in the war, contracted the plague and was exiled by the democracy and he may have also been involved in quelling the Samian Revolt. Thucydides identifies himself as an Athenian, telling us that his fathers name was Olorus and he survived the Plague of Athens that killed Pericles and many other Athenians. He also records that he owned gold mines at Scapte Hyle, because of his influence in the Thracian region, Thucydides wrote, he was sent as a strategos to Thasos in 424 BC. During the winter of 424–423 BC, the Spartan general Brasidas attacked Amphipolis, eucles, the Athenian commander at Amphipolis, sent to Thucydides for help. Thus, when Thucydides arrived, Amphipolis was already under Spartan control, Amphipolis was of considerable strategic importance, and news of its fall caused great consternation in Athens. It was blamed on Thucydides, although he claimed that it was not his fault, using his status as an exile from Athens to travel freely among the Peloponnesian allies, he was able to view the war from the perspective of both sides. During his exile from Athens, Thucydides wrote his most famous work History of the Peloponnesian War, because he was in exile during this time, he was free to speak his mind. This is all that Thucydides wrote about his own life, but a few facts are available from reliable contemporary sources. Herodotus wrote that the name Olorus, Thucydidess fathers name, was connected with Thrace, Thucydides was probably connected through family to the Athenian statesman and general Miltiades, and his son Cimon, leaders of the old aristocracy supplanted by the Radical Democrats. Cimons maternal grandfathers name was also Olorus, making the connection exceedingly likely, another Thucydides lived before the historian and was also linked with Thrace, making a family connection between them very likely as well. Finally, Herodotus confirms the connection of Thucydidess family with the mines at Scapté Hýlē, in essence, he was a well-connected gentleman of considerable resources who, by then retired from the political and military spheres, decided to fund his own historical project. The remaining evidence for Thucydidess life comes from rather less reliable later ancient sources, pausanias goes on to say that Thucydides was murdered on his way back to Athens. Many doubt this account, seeing evidence to suggest he lived as late as 397 BC, Plutarch claims that his remains were returned to Athens and placed in Cimons family vault
16.
The Secret History of Mongols
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The Secret History of the Mongols is the oldest surviving Mongolian-language literary work. Also known as Tobchiyan in the History of Yuan, the Secret History is regarded as the single most significant native Mongolian account of Genghis Khan. Linguistically, it provides the richest source of pre-classical Mongolian and Middle Mongolian, the Secret History is regarded as a piece of classic literature in both Mongolia and the rest of the world. The work begins with a genealogy of Temüjins family. The description of Temüjins life begins with the kidnapping of his mother, Hoelun, by his father Yesügei. It then covers Temüjins early life, the times after the murder of his father, and the many conflicts against him, wars. It relates how the Mongol Empire was created and it contains 12 chapters, Temüjins origin and childhood. Temujin destroys the Merkit and takes the title Genghis Khan, Genghis Khan struggles against Jamukha and Tayichiud. Genghis Khan destroys the Tatars and tangles with Ong Khan Destruction of the Khereid The fate of Ong Khan Escape of Kuchlug, establishment of the empire and imperial guard. Conquest of the Uyghur and forest peoples, conquest of China, the Tanghut, the Sartuul, Baghdad and Russia Temüjins death and Ögedeis reign. Several passages of the Secret History appear in different versions in the 17th century Mongolian chronicle Altan Tobchi. The only surviving copies of the work are transcriptions of the original Mongolian text with Chinese characters, accompanied by a in-line glossary, baavuday Tsend Gun was the first Mongolian scholar to transcribe The Secret History of the Mongols into modern Mongolian, in 1915–17. The first to discover the Secret History for the west and offer a translation from the Chinese glossary was the Russian sinologist Palladiy Kafarov, the first translations from the reconstructed Mongolian text were done by the German sinologist Erich Haenisch and Paul Pelliot. Pankratov published a translation into Russian in 1962, later, Tsendiin Damdinsüren transcribed the chronicle into Khalkha Mongolian in 1970. The Secret History of the Mongols has been published in translation in over 30 languages by researchers, in 2004 the Government of Mongolia decreed that the copy of The Secret History of the Mongols covered with golden plates was to be located to the rear part of the Government building. The Secret History of the Mongol Queens, How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire, Үсгийн галиг, The Transliteration of the Mongolian Secret History,965 pp.1990 B. Sumiyabaatar/Б. Сумьяабаатар, Монголын Нууц Товчооны хэлбэрсудлал, The Morphology оf the Mongolian Secret History,3144 pp.1997 B. Sumiyabaatar/Б. Сумяабаатар, Чингисийн алтан ургийн Угийн бичиг ба Гэрийн уеийн бичмэл, The Genealogy of the Genghiss Mongols,720 pp.2002, sumiyabaatar /Б. Сумьяабаатар, Choi Gi Ho, Монголын Нууц Товчоон
17.
Rashid-al-Din Hamadani
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Rashīd al-Dīn Ṭabīb, also known as Rashīd al-Dīn Faḍlullāh Hamadānī, was a statesman, historian and physician in Ilkhanate-ruled Iran. He was born into a Persian Jewish family from Hamadan, having converted to Islam by the age of 30, Rashid al-Din became the powerful vizier of the Ilkhan, Ghazan. Later he was commissioned by Ghazan to write the Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh, now considered the most important single source for the history of the Ilkhanate period and he retained his position as a vizier until 1316. After being charged with poisoning the Ilkhanid king Öljaitü, he was executed in 1318, historian Morris Rossabi calls Rashid-al-Din arguably the most distinguished figure in Persia during Mongolian rule. He was an author and established the Rab-e Rashidi academic foundation in Tabriz. Rashid al-Din was born into a Persian Jewish family in Hamadan and his grandfather had been a courtier to the founder Ilkhanate ruler Hulagu Khan, and Rashid al-Dins father was an apothecary at the court. He converted to Islam around the age of thirty, Rashid was trained as a physician and started service under Hulagus son, Abaqa Khan. He rose to become the Grand Vizier of the Ilkhanid court at Soltaniyeh and his son, Ghiyas al-Din ibn Rashid al-Din, briefly served as vizier after him. Rashid was assisted by Bolad, a Mongol nobleman who was the emissary of the Great Khan to the Ilkhanid court, Bolad provided him with much background about Mongol history, especially about the Borjigin clan. The Compendium was completed between 1307 and 1316, during the reign of Öljaitü, the work was executed at the elaborate scriptorium Rab-e Rashidi at Qazvin, where a large team of calligraphers and illustrators were employed to produce lavishly illustrated books. These books could also be copied, while preserving accuracy, using a printing process imported from China, the work was at the time of completion, c. Several sections have not survived or been discovered, volumes I and II of the Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh have survived and are of great importance for the study of the Ilkhanate. In his narration down to the reign of Möngke Khan, Ata-Malik Juvayni was Rashid al-Dins main source, however, he also utilized numerous now-lost Far Eastern, the Jāmiʿ al-Tawārīkh is perhaps the single most comprehensive Persian source on the Mongol period. For the period of Genghis Khan, his sources included the now lost Altan Debter Golden Book and his treatment of the Ilkhanid period seems to be biased, as he himself was a high official, yet it is still seen as the most valuable written source for the dynasty. The third volume is either lost or was never completed, its topic was historical geography and this was the product of the geographical extension of the Mongol Empire, and is most clearly reflected in this work by Rashid al-Din. The text describes the different peoples with whom the Mongols came into contact and is one of the first attempts to transcend a single cultural perspective, the Jāmiʿ attempted to provide a history of the whole world of that era, though many parts are sadly lost. Rashid al-Din also collected all of his compositions into a volume, entitled Jami al-Tasanif al-Rashidi, complete with maps. He even had some of his works, on medicine and government
18.
Ibn Khaldun
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Ibn Khaldun was a North African Arab historiographer and historian. He is claimed as a forerunner of the disciplines of sociology. He is best known for his book, the Muqaddimah or Prolegomena, the book influenced 17th-century Ottoman historians like Kâtip Çelebi, Ahmed Cevdet Pasha and Mustafa Naima who used the theories in the book to analyze the growth and decline of the Ottoman Empire. 19th-century European scholars also acknowledged the significance of the book and considered Ibn Khaldun as one of the greatest philosophers of the Middle Ages, Ibn Khalduns life is relatively well-documented, as he wrote an autobiography in which numerous documents regarding his life are quoted word-for-word. His family, which many high offices in Andalusia, had emigrated to Tunisia after the fall of Seville to the Reconquista in AD1248. Under the Tunisian Hafsid dynasty some of his family held office, Ibn Khaldūns father and grandfather however withdrew from political life. His brother, Yahya Khaldun, was also a historian who wrote a book on the Abdalwadid dynasty, and who was assassinated by a rival for being the official historiographer of the court. In his own words, And our ancestry is from Hadhramaut, from the Arabs of Yemen, via Wail ibn Hujr also known as Hujr ibn Adi, from the best of the Arabs, well-known and respected. However, the biographer Mohammad Enan questions his claim, suggesting that his family may have been Muladis who pretended to be of Arab origin in order to gain social status. Enan also mentions a well documented past tradition, concerning certain Berber groups, the motive of such an invention was always the desire for political and societal ascendancy. Some speculate this of the Khaldun family, they elaborate that Ibn Khaldun himself was the product of the same Berber ancestry as the majority of his birthplace. Even in the times when Berbers were ruling, the reigns of Al-Marabats and al-Mowahids, the Ibn Khalduns did not reclaim their Berber heritage. Khalduns tracing of his own genealogy and surname are thought to be the strongest indication of Arab Yemenite ancestry and his familys high rank enabled Ibn Khaldun to study with the best teachers in Maghreb. He received a classical Islamic education, studying the Quran which he memorized by heart, Arabic linguistics and he received certification for all these subjects. The mathematician and philosopher, Al-Abili of Tlemcen, introduced him to mathematics, logic and philosophy, at the age of 17, Ibn Khaldūn lost both his parents to the Black Death, an intercontinental epidemic of the plague that hit Tunis in 1348–1349. Following family tradition, Ibn Khaldūn strove for a political career, Ibn Khaldūns autobiography is the story of an adventure, in which he spends time in prison, reaches the highest offices and falls again into exile. In 1352, Abū Ziad, the Sultan of Constantine, marched on Tunis, Ibn Khaldūn, in any case unhappy with his respected but politically meaningless position, followed his teacher Abili to Fez. Here the Marinid sultan Abū Inan Fares I appointed him as a writer of royal proclamations, in 1357 this brought the 25-year-old a 22-month prison sentence
19.
Renaissance
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The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe. This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science, Early examples were the development of perspective in oil painting and the recycled knowledge of how to make concrete. Although the invention of movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century. In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, the Renaissance began in Florence, in the 14th century. Other major centres were northern Italian city-states such as Venice, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, the word Renaissance, literally meaning Rebirth in French, first appeared in English in the 1830s. The word also occurs in Jules Michelets 1855 work, Histoire de France, the word Renaissance has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century. The Renaissance was a movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism, however, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. In addition, many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were back from Byzantium to Western Europe. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe life as it really was. Others see more competition between artists and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance. Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins. During the Renaissance, money and art went hand in hand, Artists depended entirely on patrons while the patrons needed money to foster artistic talent. Wealth was brought to Italy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries by expanding trade into Asia, silver mining in Tyrol increased the flow of money. Luxuries from the Eastern world, brought home during the Crusades, increased the prosperity of Genoa, unlike with Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe. One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity, Arab logicians had inherited Greek ideas after they had invaded and conquered Egypt and the Levant. Their translations and commentaries on these ideas worked their way through the Arab West into Spain and Sicily and this work of translation from Islamic culture, though largely unplanned and disorganized, constituted one of the greatest transmissions of ideas in history
20.
Age of Enlightenment
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The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement which dominated the world of ideas in Europe during the 18th century, The Century of Philosophy. In France, the doctrines of les Lumières were individual liberty and religious tolerance in opposition to an absolute monarchy. French historians traditionally place the Enlightenment between 1715, the year that Louis XIV died, and 1789, the beginning of the French Revolution, some recent historians begin the period in the 1620s, with the start of the scientific revolution. Les philosophes of the widely circulated their ideas through meetings at scientific academies, Masonic lodges, literary salons, coffee houses. The ideas of the Enlightenment undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Church, a variety of 19th-century movements, including liberalism and neo-classicism, trace their intellectual heritage back to the Enlightenment. The Age of Enlightenment was preceded by and closely associated with the scientific revolution, earlier philosophers whose work influenced the Enlightenment included Francis Bacon, René Descartes, John Locke, and Baruch Spinoza. The major figures of the Enlightenment included Cesare Beccaria, Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, Adam Smith, Benjamin Franklin visited Europe repeatedly and contributed actively to the scientific and political debates there and brought the newest ideas back to Philadelphia. Thomas Jefferson closely followed European ideas and later incorporated some of the ideals of the Enlightenment into the Declaration of Independence, others like James Madison incorporated them into the Constitution in 1787. The most influential publication of the Enlightenment was the Encyclopédie, the ideas of the Enlightenment played a major role in inspiring the French Revolution, which began in 1789. After the Revolution, the Enlightenment was followed by an intellectual movement known as Romanticism. René Descartes rationalist philosophy laid the foundation for enlightenment thinking and his attempt to construct the sciences on a secure metaphysical foundation was not as successful as his method of doubt applied in philosophic areas leading to a dualistic doctrine of mind and matter. His skepticism was refined by John Lockes 1690 Essay Concerning Human Understanding and his dualism was challenged by Spinozas uncompromising assertion of the unity of matter in his Tractatus and Ethics. Both lines of thought were opposed by a conservative Counter-Enlightenment. In the mid-18th century, Paris became the center of an explosion of philosophic and scientific activity challenging traditional doctrines, the political philosopher Montesquieu introduced the idea of a separation of powers in a government, a concept which was enthusiastically adopted by the authors of the United States Constitution. Francis Hutcheson, a philosopher, described the utilitarian and consequentialist principle that virtue is that which provides, in his words. Much of what is incorporated in the method and some modern attitudes towards the relationship between science and religion were developed by his protégés David Hume and Adam Smith. Hume became a figure in the skeptical philosophical and empiricist traditions of philosophy. Immanuel Kant tried to reconcile rationalism and religious belief, individual freedom and political authority, as well as map out a view of the sphere through private
21.
Romanticism
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Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature, preferring the medieval rather than the classical. It was embodied most strongly in the arts, music, and literature, but had a major impact on historiography, education. It elevated folk art and ancient custom to something noble, Romanticism assigned a high value to the achievements of heroic individualists and artists, whose examples, it maintained, would raise the quality of society. It also promoted the individual imagination as a critical authority allowed of freedom from classical notions of form in art, there was a strong recourse to historical and natural inevitability, a Zeitgeist, in the representation of its ideas. In the second half of the 19th century, Realism was offered as a polar opposite to Romanticism, the decline of Romanticism during this time was associated with multiple processes, including social and political changes and the spread of nationalism. Defining the nature of Romanticism may be approached from the point of the primary importance of the free expression of the feelings of the artist. The importance the Romantics placed on emotion is summed up in the remark of the German painter Caspar David Friedrich that the feeling is his law. Samuel Taylor Coleridge and others believed there were laws that the imagination—at least of a good creative artist—would unconsciously follow through artistic inspiration if left alone. As well as rules, the influence of models from other works was considered to impede the creators own imagination, so that originality was essential. The concept of the genius, or artist who was able to produce his own work through this process of creation from nothingness, is key to Romanticism. This idea is called romantic originality. Not essential to Romanticism, but so widespread as to be normative, was a strong belief, however, this is particularly in the effect of nature upon the artist when he is surrounded by it, preferably alone. Romantic art addressed its audiences with what was intended to be felt as the voice of the artist. So, in literature, much of romantic poetry invited the reader to identify the protagonists with the poets themselves. In both French and German the closeness of the adjective to roman, meaning the new literary form of the novel, had some effect on the sense of the word in those languages. It is only from the 1820s that Romanticism certainly knew itself by its name, the period typically called Romantic varies greatly between different countries and different artistic media or areas of thought. Margaret Drabble described it in literature as taking place roughly between 1770 and 1848, and few dates much earlier than 1770 will be found. In English literature, M. H. Abrams placed it between 1789, or 1798, this latter a very typical view, and about 1830, however, in most fields the Romantic Period is said to be over by about 1850, or earlier
22.
Voltaire
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Voltaire was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 21,000 letters and over two books and pamphlets. He was an advocate of civil liberties, despite the risk this placed him in under the strict censorship laws of the time. As a satirical polemicist, he made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma. Some speculation surrounds Voltaires date of birth, because he claimed he was born on 20 February 1694 as the son of a nobleman. Two of his older brothers—Armand-François and Robert—died in infancy and his brother, Armand. Nicknamed Zozo by his family, Voltaire was baptized on 22 November 1694, with François de Castagnère, abbé de Châteauneuf, and Marie Daumard, the wife of his mothers cousin, standing as godparents. He was educated by the Jesuits at the Collège Louis-le-Grand, where he was taught Latin, theology, and rhetoric, later in life he became fluent in Italian, Spanish, and English. By the time he left school, Voltaire had decided he wanted to be a writer, against the wishes of his father, Voltaire, pretending to work in Paris as an assistant to a notary, spent much of his time writing poetry. When his father out, he sent Voltaire to study law. Nevertheless, he continued to write, producing essays and historical studies, Voltaires wit made him popular among some of the aristocratic families with whom he mixed. In 1713, his father obtained a job for him as a secretary to the new French ambassador in the Netherlands, the marquis de Châteauneuf, at The Hague, Voltaire fell in love with a French Protestant refugee named Catherine Olympe Dunoyer. Their scandalous affair was discovered by de Châteauneuf and Voltaire was forced to return to France by the end of the year, Most of Voltaires early life revolved around Paris. From early on, Voltaire had trouble with the authorities for critiques of the government and these activities were to result in two imprisonments and a temporary exile to England. One satirical verse, in which Voltaire accused the Régent of incest with his own daughter, the Comédie-Française had agreed in January 1717 to stage his debut play, Œdipe, and it opened in mid-November 1718, seven months after his release. Its immediate critical and financial success established his reputation, both the Régent and King George I of Great Britain presented Voltaire with medals as a mark of their appreciation. He mainly argued for tolerance and freedom of thought. He campaigned to eradicate priestly and aristo-monarchical authority, and supported a constitutional monarchy that protects peoples rights, the author adopted the name Voltaire in 1718, following his incarceration at the Bastille
23.
Giambattista Vico
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Giambattista Vico was an Italian political philosopher and rhetorician, historian, and jurist, recognized as a great intellectual of the Age of Enlightenment. He criticized the expansion and development of rationalism and was an apologist for Classical Antiquity, Vico is best known for his magnum opus. Although not an historicist, interest in Vico usually has been driven by historicists, such as Isaiah Berlin, moreover, Giambattista Vico also is known for the Latin aphorism Verum esse ipsum factum, which proposition is an early instance of constructivist epistemology. Evidence from his work points to the likelihood Vico was mostly self-taught. According to Costelloe, this was due to his fathers influence on him during an absence from school caused by a fall at the age of seven. Vico received his higher education at the University of Naples from which he graduated in 1694 as Doctor of Civil. After a bout of typhus in 1686, he accepted a position in Vatolla, south of Salerno. In 1699, he married a friend, Teresa Caterina Destito. Throughout his career, Vico would aspire to, but never attain, in 1734, however, he was appointed historiographer royal by Charles III, king of Naples, and was offered a salary far surpassing that of his professorship. Vico retained the chair of rhetoric until ill-health forced him to retire in 1741, the New Science is his major work and has been highly influential in the philosophy of history, and for historicists like Isaiah Berlin and Hayden White. Vico is best known for his verum factum principle, first formulated in 1710 as part of his De antiquissima Italorum sapientia, ex linguae latinae originibus eruenda. The principle states that truth is verified through creation or invention and not, as per Descartes, through observation, “The criterion, accordingly, our clear and distinct idea of the mind cannot be a criterion of the mind itself, still less of other truths. For while the mind itself, it does not make itself. ”This criterion for truth would later shape the history of civilization in Vico’s opus. Vicos version of rhetoric is often seen as the result of both his humanist and pedagogic concerns, as Royal Professor of Latin Eloquence, it was Vico’s task to prepare students for higher studies in law and jurisprudence. His lessons thus dealt with the aspects of the rhetorical canon, including arrangement. Yet as the above oration also makes clear, Vico chose to emphasize the Aristotelian connection of rhetoric with dialectic or logic, Vicos objection to modern rhetoric is that it cuts itself off from common sense, as the sense common to all men. Probability and circumstance retain their proportionate importance, and discovery – reliant upon topics or loci – supersedes axioms derived through reflective abstraction. In the tradition of classical Roman rhetoric, Vico sets out to educate the orator as the deliverer of the oratio, in the tradition of Socrates and Cicero, Vicos real orator or rhetorician will serve as midwife in the birth of the true out of the certain
24.
Oswald Spengler
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Oswald Arnold Gottfried Spengler 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, published in 1918 and 1922, Spenglers civilization model postulates that any civilization is a superorganism with a limited and predictable lifespan. He wrote extensively throughout World War I and the interwar period and his other writings made little impact outside Germany. In 1920 Spengler produced Prussiandom and Socialism, which argued for an organic, Oswald Spengler was born in 1880 in Blankenburg as the second child of Bernhard and Pauline Spengler. Oswalds elder brother was born prematurely in 1879, when his mother tried to move a heavy laundry basket, Oswald was born ten months after his brothers death. His younger sisters were Adele, Gertrud, and Hildegard, oswalds paternal grandfather, Theodor Spengler, was a metallurgical inspector in Altenbrak. On 26 May 1799, Friedrich Wilhelm Grantzow, an apprentice in Berlin. Shortly before the wedding, Bräunchen Moses was baptized as Johanna Elisabeth Anspachin, like the Grantzows in general, Pauline was of a Bohemian disposition, and, before marrying Bernhard Spengler, accompanied her dancer sister on tours. She was the least talented member of the Grantzow family, in appearance, she was plump and a bit unseemly. Her temperament, which Oswald inherited, complemented her appearance and frail physique, she was moody, irritable, when Oswald was ten years of age, his family moved to the university city of Halle. Here he received an education at the local Gymnasium, studying Greek, Latin, mathematics. Here, too, he developed his propensity for the poetry, drama. He even experimented with a few artistic creations, some of which still survive, of Goethe and Nietzsche, Spengler later stated that I feel urged to name once more those to whom I owe practically everything, Goethe and Nietzsche. Goethe gave me method, Nietzsche the questioning faculty, after his fathers death in 1901 Spengler attended several universities as a private scholar, taking courses in a wide range of subjects. In 1903, he failed his doctoral thesis on Heraclitus because of insufficient references and he eventually received his Ph. D. from Halle on 6 April 1904. In December 1904, he set to write the secondary dissertation necessary to qualify as a school teacher. This became The Development of the Organ of Sight in the Higher Realms of the Animal Kingdom and it was approved and he received his teaching certificate. In 1905 Spengler suffered a nervous breakdown, biographers report his life as a teacher was uneventful
25.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
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Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was a German philosopher and an important figure of German idealism. He achieved wide renown in his day and, while primarily influential within the tradition of philosophy, has become increasingly influential in the analytic tradition as well. Although he remains a figure, his canonical stature within Western philosophy is universally recognized. His philosophy of spirit conceptually integrates psychology, the state, history, art, religion and his account of the master–slave dialectic has been highly influential, especially in 20th-century France. Hegel has been seen in the 20th century as the originator of the thesis, antithesis, synthesis triad, however, as an explicit phrase, Hegel has influenced many thinkers and writers whose own positions vary widely. Hegel was born on August 27,1770 in Stuttgart, in the Duchy of Württemberg in southwestern Germany, christened Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, he was known as Wilhelm to his close family. His father, Georg Ludwig, was Rentkammersekretär at the court of Karl Eugen, Hegels mother, Maria Magdalena Louisa, was the daughter of a lawyer at the High Court of Justice at the Württemberg court. She died of a fever when Hegel was thirteen. Hegel and his father caught the disease but narrowly survived. Hegel had a sister, Christiane Luise, and a brother, Georg Ludwig, at the age of three Hegel went to the German School. When he entered the Latin School two years later, he knew the first declension, having been taught it by his mother. In 1776, Hegel entered Stuttgarts gymnasium illustre, during his adolescence Hegel read voraciously, copying lengthy extracts in his diary. Authors he read include the poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock and writers associated with the Enlightenment, such as Christian Garve, Hegels studies at the Gymnasium were concluded with his Abiturrede entitled The abortive state of art and scholarship in Turkey. At the age of eighteen Hegel entered the Tübinger Stift, where he had as roommates the poet Friedrich Hölderlin, sharing a dislike for what they regarded as the restrictive environment of the Seminary, the three became close friends and mutually influenced each others ideas. All greatly admired Hellenic civilization, and Hegel additionally steeped himself in Jean-Jacques Rousseau and they watched the unfolding of the French Revolution with shared enthusiasm. Schelling and Hölderlin immersed themselves in theoretical debates on Kantian philosophy, Hegel at this time envisaged his future as that of a Popularphilosoph, i. e. Having received his certificate from the Tübingen Seminary, Hegel became Hofmeister to an aristocratic family in Bern. During this period he composed the text which has known as the Life of Jesus
26.
Universal history
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Universal history is a term for a work aiming at the presentation of the history of humankind as a whole, as a coherent unit. A universal chronicle or world chronicle traces history from the beginning of information about the past up to the present. Universal history embraces the events of all times and nations with the only limitation being that they should be ascertained as to make a scientific treatment of them possible. Universal history in the Western tradition is divided into three parts, viz. ancient, medieval, and modern time. The division on ancient and medieval periods is less sharp or absent in the Arabic, Indian, a synoptic view of universal history led some scholars, beginning with Karl Jaspers, to distinguish the Axial Age synchronous to classical antiquity of the Western tradition. Jaspers also proposed a more universal periodization—prehistory, history and planetary history, all distinguished earlier periods belong to the second period which is a relatively brief transitory phase between two much longer periods. Jaspers periodization gains popularity in the current research, the works of world historians, Oswald Spengler, Arnold J. Toynbee and Max Ostrovsky, are three examples of attempts to integrate primary source-based history and Universal History. Spenglers work is more general, Toynbee created a theory that would allow the study of civilizations to proceed with integration of source-based history writing, Ostrovsky based comparative analysis of civilizations on primary sources in order to draw generalizations outlining a Universal History. All three writers attempted to incorporate teleological theories into general presentations of the history, Toynbee and Ostrovsky found as the telos of universal history the emergence of a single World State. In Greco-Roman antiquity, the first universal history was written by Ephorus and this work has been lost, but its influence can be seen in the ambitions of Polybius and Diodorus to give comprehensive accounts of their worlds. Metamorphoses by Ovid has been considered as a universal history because of its comprehensive chronology—from the creation of mankind to the death of Julius Caesar a year before the poets birth, in Leipzig are preserved five fragments dating to the 2nd century AD and coming from a world chronicle. Its author is unknown, but was perhaps a Christian, although his generation was the first in China to discover the existence of kingdoms in Central Asia and India, his work did not attempt to cover the history of these regions. The universal chronicle traces history from the beginning of the world up to the present and was a popular genre of historiography in medieval Western Europe. The Chronica of Eusebius of Caesarea is considered to be the point of this tradition. The second book of work consisted of a set of concordance tables that for the first time synchronized the several concurrent chronologies in use with different peoples. Eusebius chronicle became known to the Latin West through the translation by Jerome, agustine’s thesis depicts the history of the world as universal warfare between God and the Devil. This metaphysical war is not limited by time but only by geography as it takes place on planet Earth, in other cases, any obvious theme may be lacking. Some universal chronicles bear a more or less encyclopedic character, with many digressions on non-historical subjects, while this reading of Gregory is currently a widely accepted hypothesis in historical circles, the central purpose of Gregorys writing is still a topic of hot debate
27.
The Story of Mankind
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The Story of Mankind was written and illustrated by Dutch-American journalist, professor, and author Hendrik Willem van Loon and published in 1921. In 1922, it was the first book to be awarded the Newbery Medal for a contribution to childrens literature. After the books first edition, Van Loon published another edition later in the 1920s which included an essay, called After Seven Years. Since Van Loons death in 1944, The Story of Mankind has been added to extensively by his son, the most recent version by Robert Sullivan covers events up to the early 2010s. In 1957 a film was based on the book, titled The Story of Mankind, starring Ronald Colman and an all-star cast, featuring, among others. The Story of Mankind at Project Gutenberg Plain text, the Story of Mankind, available at Internet Archive. The Story of Mankind public domain audiobook at LibriVox
28.
Hendrik Willem van Loon
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Hendrik Willem van Loon was a Dutch-American historian, journalist, and award-winning childrens book author. He was born in Rotterdam, Netherlands, the son of Hendrik Willem van Loon and he went to the United States in 1902 to study at Cornell University, receiving his degree in 1905. In 1906 he married Eliza Ingersoll Bowditch, daughter of a Harvard professor, the newlyweds moved to Germany, where van Loon received his Ph. D. from the University of Munich in 1911 with a dissertation that became his first book, The Fall of the Dutch Republic. He was a correspondent for the Associated Press during the Russian Revolution of 1905 and he lectured at Cornell University from 1915 to 1917, in 1919 he became an American citizen. From the 1910s until his death, Van Loon wrote many books, most widely known among these is The Story of Mankind, a history of the world especially for children, which won the first Newbery Medal in 1922. The book was updated by Van Loon and has continued to be updated, first by his son. However, he wrote many other very popular books aimed at young adults. As a writer he was known for emphasizing crucial historical events and giving a picture of individual characters. He also had an informal and thought-provoking style which, particularly in The Story of Mankind, as an illustrator of his own books, he was known for his lively black-and-white drawings and his chronological diagrams. After having revisited Germany many times in the 1920s, he was banned from the country when the Nazis came to power, the titles and subtitles of his books are notable for being lengthy. A list of works by van Loon, with first publication dates, the Fall of the Dutch Republic,1913, Houghton Mifflin Co. The Rise of the Dutch Kingdom,1915, Doubleday Page & Co, Van Loon, Popular Historian, Journalist, and FDR Confidant. The story of Hendrik Willem van Loon, erasmus with a short life of the author by Gerard Willem Van Loon. For the Classic Club, by Walter J. Black of New York, the Italian songwriter Francesco Guccini has composed a song, dedicated to the memory of his father, who was a lover of van Loons works when he was young. The song is titled Van Loon, and appears in the album Signora Bovary, the journalist Charlie Pierce publishes a quote from van Loon every Wednesday on his politics blog for Esquire in a post titled, Your Weekly van Loon
29.
The Outline of History
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It sold more than two million copies, was translated into many languages, and had a considerable impact on the teaching of history in institutions of higher education. Wells modelled the Outline on the Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot, many revised versions were produced during Wellss lifetime, and the author kept notes on factual corrections he received from around the world. The last revision in his lifetime was published in 1937, in 1949, an expanded version was produced by Raymond Postgate, who extended the narrative through World War II, and later up to 1969. Postgate wrote that readers wish to hear the views of Wells, not those of Postgate, and endeavoured to preserve Wellss voice throughout. In later editions, G. P. Wells, the son, updated early chapters about prehistory to reflect current theories, previous editions, for instance. The final edition appeared in 1971, but earlier editions are still in print, from Neolithic times on, he history of mankind. Wells was uncertain whether to place the beginnings of settled communities living in towns in Mesopotamia or Egypt and he was equally unsure whether to consider the development of civilisation something that arose from the widely diffused Heliolithic Neolithic culture or something that arose separately. According to Wells, this dialectical antagonism reflected not only a struggle for power and resources, civilization, as this outline has shown, arose as a community of obedience, and was essentially a community of obedience. But. here was an influx of masterful will from the forests, parklands. The human spirit had at last rebelled altogether against the blind obedience of the common life, to achieve a new and better sort of civilization that should also be a community of will. Wells regarded the democratic movements of modernity as an aspect of this movement and they mark a new step forward in the power and range of the human mind, extending the temporal horizons of the human imagination. He saw in the ancient Greeks another definitive advance of these capacities, the beginnings of what is becoming at last nowadays a dominant power in human affairs, the first individual he distinguishes as embodying free intelligence is the Greek historian Herodotus. The Hebrew prophets and the tradition they founded he calls a parallel development of the conscience of mankind. Much later, he singles out Roger Bacon as a precursor of a movement in Europe. Toward reality that contributed to the development of intelligence, but t was only in the eighties of the nineteenth century that this body of inquiry began to yield results to impress the vulgar mind. Then suddenly came electric light and electric traction, and the transmutation of forces, began to come through to the ideas of ordinary people. Although The Outline of History is marked here and there by racialist thinking, Wells is firm in rejecting any theories of racial or, indeed, civilizational superiority. On race, Wells writes that Mankind from the point of view of a biologist is a species in a state of arrested differentiation
30.
H. G. Wells
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Herbert George H. G. Wells was an English writer. He was prolific in many genres, including the novel, history, politics, social commentary, Wells is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and is called a father of science fiction, along with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback. His most notable science fiction works include The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man and he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times. Wellss earliest specialised training was in biology, and his thinking on ethical matters took place in a specifically and fundamentally Darwinian context and he was also from an early date an outspoken socialist, often sympathising with pacifist views. His later works became increasingly political and didactic, and he wrote science fiction. A diabetic, in 1934, Wells co-founded the charity The Diabetic Association, Herbert George Wells was born at Atlas House,46 High Street in Bromley, Kent, on 21 September 1866. Called Bertie in the family, he was the fourth and last child of Joseph Wells and his wife, Sarah Neal. An inheritance had allowed the family to acquire a shop in which they sold china and sporting goods, although it failed to prosper, the stock was old and worn out, and the location was poor. Joseph Wells managed to earn an income, but little of it came from the shop. Payment for skilled bowlers and batsmen came from voluntary donations afterwards, a defining incident of young Wellss life was an accident in 1874 that left him bedridden with a broken leg. To pass the time he started reading books from the local library and he soon became devoted to the other worlds and lives to which books gave him access, they also stimulated his desire to write. Later that year he entered Thomas Morleys Commercial Academy, a school founded in 1849 following the bankruptcy of Morleys earlier school. The teaching was erratic, the curriculum mostly focused, Wells later said, Wells continued at Morleys Academy until 1880. In 1877, his father, Joseph Wells, fractured his thigh, the accident effectively put an end to Josephs career as a cricketer, and his subsequent earnings as a shopkeeper were not enough to compensate for the loss of the primary source of family income. No longer able to support financially, the family instead sought to place their sons as apprentices in various occupations. From 1880 to 1883, Wells had an apprenticeship as a draper at the Southsea Drapery Emporium. Wellss parents had a turbulent marriage, owing primarily to his mother being a Protestant, when his mother returned to work as a ladys maid, one of the conditions of work was that she would not be permitted to have living space for her husband and children. Thereafter, she and Joseph lived separate lives, though they never divorced and remained faithful to each other, as a consequence, Herberts personal troubles increased as he subsequently failed as a draper and also, later, as a chemists assistant
31.
Carroll Quigley
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Carroll Quigley was an American historian and theorist of the evolution of civilizations. He is noted for his work as a professor at Georgetown University, for his academic publications. Born in Boston, Quigley attended Harvard University, where he studied history and earned B. A, M. A. and he taught at Princeton University, and then at Harvard, and then from 1941 to 1976 at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. From 1941 until 1972 he taught a course at Georgetown on the development of civilizations. According to his obituary in The Washington Star, many alumni of Georgetowns School of Foreign Service asserted that this was the most influential course in their undergraduate careers and he was also a book reviewer for The Washington Star, and a contributor and editorial board member of Current History. Quigley characterized himself as a conservative defending the liberal tradition of the West and he became an early and fierce critic of the Vietnam War, and opposed the activities of the military-industrial complex. Quigley retired from Georgetown in June 1976 and died the following year, Quigleys work emphasized inclusive diversity as a core value of Western Civilization, contrasting it with the dualism of Plato. He concluded Tragedy and Hope with the hope that the West could resume its development along its old patterns of Inclusive Diversity, Quigley asserts that any intolerance or rigidity in the religious practices of the West are aberrations from its nature of inclusivity and diversity. From a historical study of weapons and political dynamics, Quigley concludes that the characteristics of weapons are the main predictor of democracy, democracy tends to emerge only when the best weapons available are easy for individuals to buy and use. This explains why democracy occurs so rarely in human history, in the 1800s, guns were the best weapon available. In America, almost everyone could afford to buy a gun, governments couldnt do any better, it became the age of mass armies of citizen soldiers with guns. In the 1900s, expensive, specialist weapons became available, Quigley notes that the slaughter of World War I was due to the mismatch between the traditional armies and the available weapons. Quigleys analytical style is scientific, stemming from his training in physics. In this book we are concerned with the social sciences. and particularly with the effort to apply a method of observation, formulation of hypotheses. The enormous size of field has made it advisable to curtail our attention to the process of social change. In his freshman year in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown, future U. S. President Bill Clinton took Quigleys course, receiving a B as his final grade in both semesters. In 1991, Clinton named Quigley as an important influence on his aspirations and political philosophy and he mentioned Quigley again during his acceptance speech to the 1992 Democratic National Convention, as follows, As a teenager, I heard John Kennedys summons to citizenship. One distinctive feature of Quigleys historical writings was his assertion that the Round Table movement have played a significant role in recent world history and his writing on this topic has made Quigley famous among many who investigate conspiracy theories
32.
Lewis Mumford
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Lewis Mumford, KBE was an American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic. Particularly noted for his study of cities and urban architecture, he had a career as a writer. Mumford was influenced by the work of Scottish theorist Sir Patrick Geddes, Mumford was also a contemporary and friend of Frank Lloyd Wright, Clarence Stein, Frederic Osborn, Edmund N. Bacon, and Vannevar Bush. Mumford was born in Flushing, Queens, New York and graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1912 and he studied at the City College of New York and The New School for Social Research, but became ill with tuberculosis and never finished his degree. In 1918 he joined the navy to serve in World War I and was assigned as a radio electrician and he was discharged in 1919 and became associate editor of The Dial, an influential modernist literary journal. He later worked for The New Yorker where he wrote architectural criticism, Mumfords earliest books in the field of literary criticism have had a lasting impact on contemporary American literary criticism. Soon after, with the book The Brown Decades, he began to establish himself as an authority in American architecture and urban life, which he interpreted in a social context. In his early writings on life, Mumford was optimistic about human abilities and wrote that the human race would use electricity. He would later take a more pessimistic stance and his early architectural criticism also helped to bring wider public recognition to the work of Henry Hobson Richardson, Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. In 1963, Mumford received the Frank Jewett Mather Award for art criticism from the College Art Association, Mumford received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. In 1975 Mumford was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, in 1976, he was awarded the Prix mondial Cino Del Duca. In 1986, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts and he served as the architectural critic for The New Yorker magazine for over 30 years. His 1961 book, The City in History, received the National Book Award, Lewis Mumford died at the age of 94 at his home in Amenia, New York on January 26,1990. Nine years later it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and his wife Sophia died in 1997, at age 97. In his book The Condition of Man, published in 1944, the term is an important one because it sets limits on human possibilities, limits that are aligned with the nature of the human body. Mumford never forgot the importance of air quality, of food availability, of the quality of water, or the comfort of spaces, technology and progress could never become a runaway train in his reasoning, so long as organic humanism was there to act as a brake. Mumfords respect for nature, that is to say, the natural characteristics of being human, provided him with a platform from which to assess technologies. Thus his criticism and counsel with respect to the city and with respect to the implementation of technology was fundamentally organized around the organic humanism to which he ascribed
33.
William H. McNeill (historian)
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William Hardy McNeill was a Canadian-American world historian and author, particularly noted for his writings on Western civilization. He was Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Chicago where he had taught since 1947 and he was also the father of historian J. R. McNeill with whom he co-authored The Human Web, A Birds-eye View of World History. William McNeill was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and he was educated at the University of Chicago, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in 1938 and Master of Arts in 1939. In 1941, he was drafted into the U. S. Army, after the war, he obtained his PhD at Cornell University, in 1947. In 1947, McNeill began teaching at the University of Chicago, mcNeills most popular work, completed early in his career, is The Rise of the West, A History of the Human Community. The book explored world history in terms of the effect of different old world civilizations on one another and it had a major impact on historical theory, especially its emphasis on cultural fusions, in contrast to Oswald Spenglers view of discrete, independent civilizations. McNeills Rise of the West won the 1964 U. S. National Book Award in History and his Plagues and Peoples, was an important early contribution to the impact of disease on human history and contributed to the emergence of environmental history as a discipline. McNeill was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama on February 25,2010, McNeill was married to Elizabeth Darbishire until her death in 2006. McNeill died in July 2016, at the age of 98, the Greek Dilemma War And Aftermath J. B. History of Western Civilization, A Handbook, the Introduction of the Potato into Ireland, The Journal of Modern History Vol.21, No. The Rise of the West, A History of the Human Community, venice, The Hinge of Europe, 1081-1797. Historical Patterns of Migration, Current Anthropology,20, 95–102, March 1979, doi,10. 1086/202206, JSTOR2741864, the Human Condition, An Ecological and Historical View. The Pursuit of Power, Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A. D.1000, a Memoir of the University of Chicago. The Global Condition, Conquerors, Catastrophes, & Community, keeping Together in Time, Dance and Drill in Human History. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 4th edition, the Human Web, A Birds-Eye View of World History. Great Barrington, MA, Berkshire Publishing Group, the Pursuit of Truth, A Historians Memoir. Summers Long Ago, On Grandfathers Farm and in Grandmothers Kitchen, great Barrington, MA, Berkshire Publishing Group. Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History, 2nd Edition, great Barrington, MA, Berkshire Publishing Group
34.
The Rise of the West
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Its first edition won the U. S. National Book Award in History and Biography in 1964 and it was named one of the 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the 20th century by the Modern Library. The Rise of the West explore human history in terms of the effect of different world civilizations on one another, mcNeill assumes decent familiarity with Western history, which allows describing underrated matters. The footnotes teem with specialized studies that support the bold strokes in the text, development is thematic within periods rather than entirely chronological. The book is in three parts of equal length. Part I begins with evolutionary prehistory and the breakthrough to civilization in Mesopotamia and this is followed by the era of Middle Eastern dominance and the formation of peripheral civilizations in India, Greece, and China to 500 B. C. The sequence is Hellenistic / Indian / Islamic / Chinese and Mongol, part III examines the era of Western dominance. The book describes the balance of older orders within Europe, European expansion and acculturation in outliers. The rise of the West on a scale from 1750 to 1950 is described as to continued territorial expansion, industrialism, the democratic revolution. This period marks a discontinuity, the influence of the West expands beyond all historical parallels. In his words, Why, then, did modern science, as opposed to medieval and ancient science, develop only in the Western world. McNeill recalled in the edition that the rise of the West had become a synonym for historical processes in Europe in the last 500 years. A unifying theme of his book, however, had been interrelation, the Rise of the West has had a big influence upon the subsequent development of World Systems Theory. One critical response has been that the West did not rise, great Divergence Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel Citations _____,1990. The Rise of the West after Twenty-Five Years, Journal of World History 1,1, p. 1-21, also in McNeil,1991. _____,1998. World History and the Rise and Fall of the West, Journal of World History 9,2, p. 215–36
35.
Alastair M. Taylor
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Alastair MacDonald Taylor was a Canadian historian, filmmaker, United Nations official, professor of geography and political studies, and interdisciplinary thinker. He co-authored the first world-history textbook published in the United States and he played an active role in, and became the leading chronicler of, the diplomatic intervention by the United Nations to secure the independence of Indonesia. He was also among the first to apply theory to the historical development of human societies. Taylor was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1915, in 1930 the family moved to California, where he attended Hollywood High School and then the University of Southern California, from which he graduated summa cum laude in 1937. The topic of his Master’s thesis at USC was “The Decline of Scottish Monasticism in the Fifteenth Century”, at age 22 he collaborated with T. Walter Wallbank to begin writing Civilization Past and Present. Taylor himself directed two short films focusing on the situation of Canadian workers in the wartime economy. Between 1944 and 1952 Taylor worked for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in Washington, D. C. and then for the UN Secretariat in New York City. At UNRRA he was a speechwriter for Herbert Lehman, former governor of New York state, Taylor became the Official Spokesman of the Security Council’s United Nations Commission for Indonesia, which oversaw the peace settlement between the Netherlands and its former colony. In this capacity he spent several months in Indonesia in 1949 and 1950 and also attended the Dutch-Indonesian Round Table Conference in The Hague, Taylor received his doctorate from Balliol College, Oxford, in 1955. His dissertation was the basis for his book Indonesian Independence and the United Nations, in 1960 Taylor joined the faculty of Queens University at Kingston, Ontario, where he taught in both the Geography and Political Studies departments until 1980. At Queen’s, in the early 1960s, he developed his model of the historical evolution of human societies. TST understands human societies as instances of natural systems equilibrating with their environments in a hierarchy of integrative levels. It identifies a sequence of world-views that organize societal systems at the different levels. Taylor named these world-views “Mythos”, “Theos”, “Logos”, and “Holos”, Taylor published a number of articles about the TST model and in his last years was preparing a book-length exposition of his ideas. Civilization Past and Present, with T. Walter Wallbank, the World in Turmoil, 1914-1944, with T. Walter Wallbank. Indonesian Independence and the United Nations, “Toward a Field Theory of International Relations”, General Semantics Bulletin 35, 9-43. “Evolution-Revolution, General Systems Theory, and Society”, in Rubin Gotesky and Ervin Laszlo, “Integrative Principles in Human Societies”, in Henry Margenau, Integrative Principles of Modern Thought. Western Perspectives, A Concise History of Civilization, with T. Walter Wallbank, “Process and Structure in Sociocultural Systems”, in Erich Jantsch and Conrad H. Waddington, Evolution and Consciousness, Human Systems in Transition
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