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Culture, Culture
History of humanity: scientific and cultural development, v. II: From the third millennium to the seventh century B.C.
Culture, CultureHistory of humanity: scientific and cultural development, v. II: From the third millennium to the seventh century B.C.
0 5(0)Towards 3100 bc, at the start of the period dealt with in this volume, humanity already had a past which stretched back to some two and a half million years, and it had gone through 99.5 per cent of its existence from the emergence of the first being who can be classified under the genus Homo to the present day.
We shall not return here to the distinction usually drawn between the prehistoric age – the period before the appearance of writing – and the historical period in the strict sense of the word, or to the vast, almost unimaginable, duration of this most ancient of human adventures. The reader will find further details on this subject in the General Introduction to Volume I. It should nevertheless be pointed out that Volume I, in spite of the length of time it covers, restricts itself to the period when all populations were still ignorant of writing, and prehistory was still far from nearing its end. In the two and a half thousand years covered by this volume, the knowledge of writing was in fact limited to a handful of regions, and the great majority of populations were still in the prehistoric stage.SKU:9780415093064"CHF 149.00 -
Culture, Culture
History of humanity: scientific and cultural development, v. VI: The Nineteenth century
Culture, CultureHistory of humanity: scientific and cultural development, v. VI: The Nineteenth century
0 5(0)Each volume of the new UNESCO History of Humanity covers a period which can claim to have witnessed momentous change in the evolution of human society. The evolving panorama of humankind on the planet is manifest throughout, and who can say, sub specie aeternitatis, which phases of change will have proved the most portentous for the long-term future of humanity? It is the primary role of a history such as this to document the story of change within its period, to understand the pattern of evolution in its manifold manifestations and to assess its wider meaning, rather than to cast moral judgements or to make facile comparisons. But change has evolved at a different pace in different millennia and over different centuries. Change has been more pervasive in some societies than in others – affecting a wider or narrower range of human activities and the human consciousness, impacting upon different levels of society; diffused over greater or more limited regions of the world; influencing different ranges of cultures and social groups within cultures. Stability, or slow evolution, rather than dramatic change characterized many societies in this period but it is right, in an introduction, to concentrate on the forces of change rather than those of inertia if we are to understand how the world differed in 1914 from what it had been in 1789 or 1800.
The ‘chronological’ nineteenth century – or, even more, the ‘long’ nineteenth century between the French Revolution of 1789, followed by world-wide wars, and the First World War of 1914, which engulfed the globe on an even more pervasive and lethal scale – must surely rank as one of the great pivotal epochs in the evolution of economies, societies and cultures. No region of the world proved to be beyond the influence of major forces of change; no culture was immune, directly or indirectly. Where some indigenous cultures did not themselves originate any major impetus for change beyond their own regions, virtually all economies and cultures reacted and responded to the thrust of change derived from beyond their boundaries, in turn influencing the process of cultural interaction which was never unidirectional (as was also the case with economic and political interactions). In many places, in regions of Asia and Africa in particular, such inf luences came with conquest and colonization in the nineteenth century; in others such influences were already the heritage of and evolution from previous centuries (as in Latin America). But formal subjugation was perhaps the lesser means whereby what was loosely termed ‘Westernization’ spread across much the world from Europe, North America and their outposts of settlement in Australasia, South Africa and North Africa.
SKU:9789231028151"CHF 149.00 -
Culture, Culture
History of humanity: scientific and cultural development, v. IV: From the seventh to the sixteenth century
Culture, CultureHistory of humanity: scientific and cultural development, v. IV: From the seventh to the sixteenth century
0 5(0)The lengthy period extending from AD 600 to AD 1500 was marked by steady, stubborn growth in population, despite steep mortality, and by multiplying contacts between different parts of the planet, despite deep-lying hostility. In the Old World, distant lands were connected by trade routes and exchanged not only goods but also achievements in technology and other forms of knowledge, much to the benefit of Europe’s progress. At the end of this period, powerful links were forged between the Old World and the New (except for Australia). In contrast to the haphazard growth of communications within the Old World, bonds across the Atlantic were strengthened at once by massive migration from Spain and Portugal to the lands of Central and South America. To be sure, the history of these nine centuries was charged with events fraught with contradictions – and cruelty. The routes which furthered trade also spread epidemic diseases or sped aggressive invaders on their way. Improvement in techniques spurred progress in farming – and in weaponry too.
SKU:9789231028137"CHF 149.00