The Idea of Progress: An Inquiry into Its Origin and Growth - Softcover

Bury, J B

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1410212912 ISBN 13: 9781410212917

Publisher: University Press of the Pacific, 2004

Synopsis

Practically unknown before the Reformation, the idea of progress has since become one of the central concepts of western civilization. Professor Bury analyzes its evolution in the thought of Greece, Rome, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, to its flowering in all branches of science, religion, philosophy, industry, art, and literature during and following the 16th century. Emphasizing the necessity of adhering with rigid exactness to historical facts, the author presents a scheme of ideas upon which to thread the facts of human development which extends to cover the whole range of civilization in its movement through time. In this classic, oft cited volume, Bury writes a form of intellectual history, tracing the development of the idea of progress from the Greeks through its relationship to the idea of evolution. At the time of original publication in 1921, J. B. Bury was Regius Professor of Modern History, and Fellow of King's College, in the University of Cambridge, and was a profound scholar and a philosophic thinker.

About this title

From the Back Cover

The notion that human civilization is progressing, is naturally moving from a more primitive state to a more evolved one, seems so obvious to us that it bears reminding that this was not always true: the concept did not exist before the Enlightenment. In fact, as renowned historian J.B. Bury explains in this classic work, first published in 1920, the idea of progress was antithetical to the thinking of the ancients, who saw history as an unstoppable decline from a previous Golden Age. How did we shift from such pessimism to the current assumption, and how has it altered human civilization? Drawing on the writings of such thinkers from Malthus and Descartes to Darwin and Marx--and many others--Bury explores how all fields of human thought from philosophy to physics have been changed by the idea of progress. British historian JOHN BAGNELL BURY (1861-1927) was professor of modern history at Cambridge. His writings, known for a readability combined with a scholarly depth, include History of the Later Roman Empire (1889), History of Greece (1900), and A History of Freedom of Thought (1913).

Edition details

• Publisher: University Press of the Pacific
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1410212912
• ISBN 13: 9781410212917
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 396