The Evolution of Civilizations: An Introduction to Historical Analysis / Edition 1

by Carroll Quigley

Overview

Carroll Quigley was a legendary teacher at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. His course on the history of civilization was extraordinary in its scope and in its impact on students.

Like the course, The Evolution of Civilizations is a comprehensive and perceptive look at the factors behind the rise and fall of civilizations. Quigley examines the application of scientific method to the social sciences, then establishes his historical hypotheses. He poses a division of culture into six levels from the abstract to the more concrete. He then tests those hypotheses by a detailed analysis of five major civilizations: the Mesopotamian, the Canaanite, the Minoan, the classical, and the Western.

Quigley defines a civilization as “a producing society with an instrument of expansion.” A civilization’s decline is not inevitable but occurs when its instrument of expansion is transformed into an institution—that is, when social arrangements that meet real social needs are transformed into social institutions serving their own purposes regardless of real social needs.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780913966570
Publisher:	Liberty Fund, Incorporated
Publication date:	08/01/1979
Edition description:	2d ed
Pages:	444
Sales rank:	125,840
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

Diagrams, Tables, and Maps 11
Foreword, by Harry J. Hogan 13
Preface to the First Edition 23 1 Scientific Method and the Social Sciences 31
2. Man and Culture 49
3. Groups, Societies, and Civilizations 67
4. Historical Analysis 85
5. Historical Change in Civilizations 127
6. The Matrix of Early Civilizations 167
7. Mesopotamian Civilization 209
8. Canaanite and Minoan Civilizations 239
9. Classical Civilization 269
10.Western Civilization 333 Conclusion 415
Selective Bibliography, by William Marina 423
Index 429

Editorial Reviews

—Crane Brinton, Harvard University

From the Publisher