Rise of the West
* Book: The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community. University of Chicago Press, 1963.
URL = https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo3645507.html
Description
"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."
(https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo3645507.html)
Contents
From the Wikipedia:
"Part I of The Rise of the West discusses evolutionary prehistory, the breakthrough to civilization in Mesopotamia, the era of Middle Eastern dominance, and the formation of peripheral civilizations in India, Greece, and China to 500 BC.
Part II discusses the Eurasian cultural balance to 1500 AD, including the expansion of Hellenism, the closure of the Eurasian ecumene, the development of major religions, the barbarian onslaught, resurgence of the Middle East, and steppe conquerors. McNeill proposes that the basic engine of world history during this period is the temporary primacy of different regions of the ecumene, with a rough parity reestablished as innovations spread to other centers of civilization. The sequence is Hellenistic / Indian / Islamic / Chinese and Mongol. Generally the eras are structured in terms of the internal history of the dominant region, followed by the history of the rest of the world with a focus on how they reacted to the diffusing techniques and ideas of the dominant region.
Part III examines the era of Western dominance. From 1500 to 1750 this is represented by the challenge of Western Europe to the world in a period of exploitation and colonization and the changing balance of the ecumene in the Islamic world, the Far East, and Africa. Before 1750, Western superiority is similar in scope to the primacy previously enjoyed by other regions. The book describes the "tottering balance" of older orders within Europe, European expansion and acculturation in outliers, including the Americas. The rise of the West on a cosmopolitan scale from 1750 to 1950 is described as to continued territorial expansion, industrialism, the democratic revolution, and intellectual aspects. This period marks a discontinuity: the global influence of the West expands beyond all historical parallels."
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rise_of_the_West)
PART I
THE ERA OF MIDDLE EASTERN DOMINANCE TO 500 B.C.
- I. IN THE BEGINNING
- II. THE BREAKTHROUGH TO CIVILIZATION IN MESOPOTAMIA
- III. THE DIFFUSION OF CIVILIZATION: FIRST PHASE
A. INTRODUCTION
B. THE CIVILIZATIONS OF THE NILE AND INDUS VALLEYS TO 1700 B.C.
D. THE IMPACT OF CIVILIZATION ON THE OUTER FRINGES OF THE AGRICULTURAL WORLD
- IV. THE RISE OF A COSMOPOLITAN CIVILIZATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST, 1700-500 B.C.
A. INTRODUCTION
B. MILITARY-POLITICAL CHANGES
C. ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEMS
D. SOCIAL STRUCTURE
E. CULTURAL CONSERVATION AND ADVANCE
- V. THE FORMULATION OF PERIPHERAL CIVILIZATIONS IN INDIA, GREECE, AND CHINA, 1700-500 B.C.
A. INTRODUCTION
B. THE FORMULATION OF INDIAN CIVILIZATION
C. THE FORMULATION OF GREEK CIVILIZATION
D. THE BEGINNINGS OF CHINESE CIVILIZATION TO 500 B.C.
E. CHANGES IN THE BARBARIAN WORLD TO 500 B.C.
PART II
EURASIAN CULTURAL BALANCE 500 B.C.-1500 A.D.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
- VI. THE EXPANSION OF HELLENISM, 500-146 B.C.
A. THE FLOWERING OF GREEK CULTURE, 500-336 B.C.
B. HELLENIC EXPANSION INTO BARBARIAN EUROPE
C. THE HELLENIZATION OF THE ORIENT, 500-146 B.C.
- VII. CLOSURE OF THE EURASIAN ECUMENE, 500 B.C.-200 A.D.
A. INTRODUCTION
B. EXPANSION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE NON-HELLENIC CIVILIZATIONS OF EURASIA, 500-100 B.C.
- VIII. BARBARIAN ONSLAUGHT AND CIVILIZED RESPONSE, 200-600 A.D.
A. INTRODUCTION
B. THE FLOWERING OF INDIAN CULTURE
C. THE EXPANSION OF INDIAN CIVILIZATION
D. THE NORTHERN FRONTIER: BARBARIAN BREAKTHROUGH AND CIVILIZED REACTION
E. THE OUTER FRINGES
- IX. THE RESURGENCE OF THE MIDDLE EAST, 600-1000 A.D.
A. INTRODUCTION
B. THE MOSLEM WORLD
C. CHRISTENDOM
D. INDIA
E. CHINA AND THE FAR EAST
F. THE OUTER FRINGES
- X. STEPPE CONQUERORS AND THE EUROPEAN FAR WEST, 1000-1500 A.D.
A. INTRODUCTION
B. INFILTRATION AND CONQUEST FROM THE STEPPE
C. ISLAMIC REACTION TO THE PRESSURES FROM THE STEPPE
D. INDIANS, CHRISTIANS, AND JEWS UNDER MOSLEM RULE
E. THE FAR EAST
F. THE FAR WEST
G. THE FRINGES OF THE ECUMENE
PART III
THE ERA OF WESTERN DOMINANCE, 1500 A.D. TO THE PRESENT
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
- THE FAR WEST’S CHALLENGE TO THE WORLD, 1500-1700 A.D.
A. THE GREAT EUROPEAN EXPLORATIONS AND THEIR WORLD-WIDE CONSEQUENCES
B. THE TRANSMUTATION OF EUROPE, 1500-1650 A.D.
C. EUROPE’S OUTLIERS: THE AMERICAS AND RUSSIA, 1500-1650 A.D.
D. THE CHANGING BALANCE OF THE ECUMENE, 1500-1700 A.D.
E. CONCLUSION
- XII. THE TOTTERING WORLD BALANCE, 1700-1850 A.D.
A. INTRODUCTION
B. THE OLD REGIME OF EUROPE, 1650-1789 A.D.
C. MOSLEM CATALEPSY, 1700-1850 A.D.
D. HINDU AND BUDDHIST ASIA, 1700-1850 A.D.
E. CREEPING CRISIS IN THE FAR EAST, 1700-1850 A.D.
F. THE RETREAT OF BARBARISM, 1700-1850 A.D.
- XIII. THE RISE OF THE WEST: COSMOPOLITANISM ON A GLOBAL SCALE, 1850-1950 A.D.
A. INTRODUCTORY
B. THE WESTERN EXPLOSION, 1789-1917 A.D.
- CONCLUSION
A. SCALE OF POLITICS B. SCOPE OF POLITICS C. DILEMMAS OF POWER
Review
From the Wikipedia:
"The Rise had two major effects on historical analysis. First, it challenged the view of civilizations as independent entities subject to rise and fall as postulated by Arnold J. Toynbee and Oswald Spengler, who viewed civilizations as discrete and independent. McNeill had actually conceived of the book as a student in 1936 to counter the theses of Spengler's Decline of the West (the title The Rise of the West chosen as a deliberate contrast) and Toynbee's A Study of History, which "postulated that civilizations marched to their own drummers, largely unaffected by foreign influences". McNeill, on the other hand, stresses the diffusion of techniques and ideas, making connections between civilizations crucially important. Second, it provided a framework for theories like world-systems theory and dependency theory, which "cemented the centrality of the 'West' in world history"."