Evolution of Civilizations: An Introduction to Historical Analysis - Hardcover

Quigley, Carroll

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0913966568 ISBN 13: 9780913966563

Publisher: Liberty Fund Inc, 1979

Synopsis

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.

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Review

The only book that improves on and develops Toynbee's work. . . . The very best work of its kind I have read in a very long time. --Crane Brinton, Harvard University

Synopsis

A comprehensive and perceptive look at the factors behind the rise and fall of civilizations. 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.

Edition details

• Publisher: Liberty Fund Inc
• Publication date: 1979
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0913966568
• ISBN 13: 9780913966563
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 444