Evolution of Civilizations

* Book: The Evolution of Civilizations: An Introduction to Historical Analysis (1st ed.). New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. 1961. Hardcover. 281 pages.

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"essentially an attempt to explain the populations and cultures of the Middle East at the dawn of history, pursuing this concern up to contemporary modern Western civilization, in accordance with this model of seven stages of development and the "instruments of expansion" of civilization" [1]

Review

Wojciech Gryc:

"Quigley’s writing has a few important takeaways for readers today:

• Civilizations rise and fall, and this is a normal course – but not a common one – in human history. Quigley discusses 24 civilizations that have come into existence, and nearly all of which have since collapsed or been subsumed into other civilizations. Seeing how such collapses have taken place in the past helps understand whether our current Western civilization is headed in such a direction.

• Civilizations typically wane out of existence; they do not explode or die in a fiery blaze. This is important to note, as most “deaths” occur in a slow process via attrition. The decline of Classical civilization (i.e., the Greeks and Romans) took over 1,000 years. These processes are slow, but also sometimes reversible. The same goes for how civilizations begin: it is often a slow process, filled with mixture across different regions, belief systems, and ways of living. Quigley summarizes the birth and life of civilizations by using a seven stage system: mixture, gestation, expansion, age of conflict, universal empire, decay, and invasion.

• The biggest threat to a civilization is the institutionalization of its expansionary instruments. In other words, civilizations begin to decline when whatever they use to gather, distribute, and grow their resources turns into a political process that aims to maintain itself regardless of its resource-gathering ability. This is shown across every civilization that Quigley explores. Quigley further provides signs to look for that imply such institutionalization is taking place, including significant rises in inequality, expansionary wars, and irrationality when it comes to governmental (and societal) decision-making.

..

The Evolution of Civilizations was eye-opening it that it underscores that there is no such thing as a permanent civilization.

Early civilizations were the result of a million years of evolution and climate cycles that led to the development of basic hunting and farming cultures. Later civilizations developed from the remnants of these earlier ones by subsuming some of their technologies, beliefs, governance structures, and so on. What is important to emphasize is that while civilizations rarely experience apocalyptic events, there are also clear boundaries between civilizations. For example, once Classical Civilization began to wane in the first millennium, it took five or six centuries for Western Civilization to begin making progress and develop its own systems (hence the Dark Ages, as some would call this period).

This serves as a stark reminder that while civilizations evolve and make progress, it’s important to note that progress can be fickle, and decades of consistent economic growth (as we see in today’s global environment) are fairly unique, special, and should not be taken for granted."

(https://10millionsteps.com/review-evolution-of-civilizations)

More information

1. Pdf version at https://ia902706.us.archive.org/30/items/CarrollQuigley-TheEvolutionOfCivilizations-AnIntroductionTo/CarrollQuigley-TheEvolutionOfCivilizations-AnIntroductionToHistoricalAnalysis1979.pdf
2. Scanned version at http://www.carrollquigley.net/pdf/Carroll-Quigley-TheEvolutionOfCivilizations-AnIntroductionToHistoricalAnalysis-1st&2nd-Editions.pdf

Other Books by Carroll Quigley

Tragedy and Hope

“Quigley's work emphasized inclusive diversity as a core value of Western civilization, contrasting it with the dualism of Plato. He concluded the book Tragedy and Hope with the hope that the West could "resume its development along its old patterns of Inclusive Diversity". From his study of history, "it is clear that the West believes in diversity rather than in uniformity, in pluralism rather than in monism or dualism, in inclusion rather than exclusion, in liberty rather than in authority, in truth rather than in power, in conversion rather than in annihilation, in the individual rather than in the organization, in reconciliation rather than in triumph, in heterogeneity rather than in homogeneity, in relativisms rather than in absolutes, and in approximations rather than in final answers."

Quigley asserts that any intolerance or rigidity in the religious practices of the West are aberrations from its nature of inclusivity and diversity.”

((https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_Quigley))

Weapons Systems and Political Stability

Weapons Systems and Political Stability: A History (PDF). Washington, DC: University Press of America. 1983. pp. 1064 pages

“From a historical study of weapons and political dynamics, Quigley concludes that the characteristics of weapons are the main predictor of democracy. Democracy tends to emerge only when the best weapons available are easy for individuals to buy and use. This explains why democracy occurs so rarely in human history. In the 1800s (peaking in the 1880s), guns were the best weapon available. In America, almost everyone could afford to buy a gun, and could learn how to use it fairly easily. Governments couldn't do any better: it became the age of mass armies of citizen soldiers with guns.(Similarly, Periclean Greece was an age of the citizen soldier and of democracy In the 1900s, expensive, specialist weapons (such as tanks and bombers) became available, and citizen soldiers became dominated by specialist soldiers.”

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carroll_Quigley)