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The Rise of the West

A History of the Human Community; with a Retrospective Essay

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The Rise of the West

By: William H. McNeill
Narrated by: Paul Brion
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About this listen

The Rise of the West, winner of the National Book Award for history in 1964, is famous for its ambitious scope and intellectual rigor. In it, McNeill challenges the Spengler-Toynbee view that a number of separate civilizations pursued essentially independent careers, and argues instead that human cultures interacted at every stage of their history. The author suggests that, from the Neolithic beginnings of grain agriculture to the present, major social changes in all parts of the world were triggered by new or newly important foreign stimuli, and he presents a persuasive narrative of world history to support this claim.

In a retrospective essay titled "The Rise of the West after Twenty-five Years," McNeill shows how his book was shaped by the time and place in which it was written (1954-63). He discusses how historiography subsequently developed and suggests how his portrait of the world's past in The Rise of the West should be revised to reflect these changes.

©1963, 1991 The University of Chicago (P)2022 Tantor World Middle Ages Imperialism Ancient History Socialism Military Middle East Africa Social change Crusade
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McNeill is able to at once provide a broad sweep of little covered regions & drill down deeply into what was shaping key civilisations. Written in 1968, little needs updating much less correction & his closing obligations are eerily prescient.

Outstanding scholarship.

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