The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community By William H. McNeill

Well, I finally finished this monster -- part of my Modern Library project. And I have decidedly mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, McNeill can be quite on the nose in showing how religion, trade, and secular authority created fascinating relationships between nations and empires . On the other hand, he often seems lost in tackling the entire scope of human history. He is quite generous to India, China, Hinduism, and Islam in a book purporting to be about the rise of the West. But he is needlessly dismissive of Africa. The book is strongest and smartest when it wrestles with ancient civilization and McNeil's concept of the ecumene -- that is, the bloc of nations whose accomplishments and shifts away from barbarism intermeshed and combined with each other to form the basis of Western civilization as we know it. But I think McNeil loses his way when he tries to cleave to his ecumene concept (while pretty much abandoning his early great nation idea established early on) while ridiculously attempting to synthesize the last five hundred years of history into 150 pages -- quite an impossible task! I'll have more to say when I eventually write my essay. I admire McNeill's ambition, but I don't know if there was any way he (or anyone) could have packed this into a 900 page volume. 0226561445 Read this over the course of 4 or 5 months, 50 years ago. Even the author recognizes that It’s theme is dated and I have to agree with him. On the other hand Gibbon’s Decline and Fall is also dated. Both are still worth reading for pleasure and for a greater understanding of their times.

It’s been so long that I read it that I can hardly give a useful review, but I have kept a copy in my library and still pull it out at odd times. Not to read the text, but to browse among the very extensive footnotes, each of which is a miniature history lesson in itself. For that reason: 5 stars. 0226561445 I cannot rate this book highly enough. It is the best basic history book in existence, going from Sumer to the middle of the 20th Century. McNeill's writing is clear and easy to comprehend, yet he never oversimplifies the material he covers. Anyone who wants a thorough overview of history from Sumeria to the 1950s, this is the book.

It should be noted that while he calls the book Rise of the West, he covers India, China, and the Americas as well. In fact, this is one of the best books I've ever read on India prior to the Moghuls. He includes a long section on the relation between China and the subcontinent. Well worth the time. 0226561445 Buku 'Rise Of The West' ini terbitkan pada tahun 1963, kurang dua tahun sebelum Martin Luther King berarak dari Selma ke Montgomery, menuntut hak politikal kaum Kulit Hitam Amerika.

Ini membuatkan aku terkejut dengan isi yang terdapat di dalam buku ini. Penulis adalah cukup kosmopolitan di dalam mencakupkan sejarah dan pengaruh tamadun China, Indo-Parsi dan juga Asia Tenggara (walau aku syak yang beliau lebih memaksudkan Indonesia berbanding Nusantara secara umumnya) di dalam panorama sejarah dunianya. Tesis 'Kebangkitan Barat' beliau pula, walaupun sudah tentu adalah Eurosentrik, adalah 'Eurosentrik' untuk sebab yang betul.

Apa yang lebih menarik adalah tindakan penulis menyantuni impak kaum gasar yang hidup terutamanya di sepanjang dataran lapang Eurasia (steppe peoples) terhadap tamadun-tamadun yang pernah berinteraksi dengannya. Aku tidak pernah membaca suatu rekonstruksi semula akan kesan dan impak kaum-kaum gasar, yang nyata sekali bukanlah monolitik di dalam tatahidup mereka, terhadap tamadun-tamadun terbesar dunia yang lebih unggul daripada apa yang dipersembahkan McNeill di sini.

Perlu dititipkan di sini bahawa konsep tamadun yang disebutkan penulis, pada pendapat aku, adalah datang daripada paradigma Toynbee-ian. Malah aku melihat buku ini sebagai suatu usaha untuk melanjutkan paradigma tersebut dengan McNeill menegaskan tiada tamadun berdiri dengan sendiri - No civilization is an island.

*Terdapat suatu kisah diceritakan bahawa buku ini asalnya diniatkan oleh penulis untuk ditulis di bawah penyeliaan Toynbee. Tetapi penulis tawar hati selepas menyaksikan betapa Toynbee yang ketika itu sudah menginjak usia senja, terlalu berkeras dengan konsepsi tamadun beliau sebagai suatu entiti mapan yang naik dan turun di dalam satu kitaran alam yang deterministik.

Dari sisi ini, William H McNeill adalah suatu sejarahwan materialis apabila beliau menitikberatkan pengaruh artifak kesenian halus (patung, lukisan, hasil tangan) di dalam memfasilitasi gerak-daya pembentukan dan pertukaran budaya. Alasan McNeill adalah kerana artifak-artifak sebegini diterima dengan mudah serta tidak memerlukan dialektika secara langsung dengan agama atau budaya tempatan. Contohnya adalah pengenalan teknologi Barat oleh paderi Jesuit serta ilmu kaji bintang oleh cendekia Arab ke China yang berlaku secara satu-hala; yakni tanpa China terpesona dengan tamadun Barat mahupun Arab.

Ramalan-ramalan beliau di bahagian konklusi buku, ada yang sedikit salah dan tidak kurang juga yang salah sesalahnya apabila dinilai kembali separuh abad kemudian. McNeill menjangkakan negara baru (ketika itu) Pakistan bakal menghembuskan nafas segar kepada legasi ketamadunan Islam setelah merkea menyerapkan konsep negara bangsa yang demokratik ke dalam perlembagaannya. Juga beliau menjangkakan dunia yang semakin aman dengan kewujudan suatu badan berkanun trans-nasional (PBB?) yang ditunjangi sistem birokrasi moden akan membantutkan inovasi baru di dalam sains teknologi atau pengurusan sosial - unjuran beliau ini mungkin banyak dipengaruhi oleh apa yang telah berlaku kepada sistem birokasi China yang berusia 2 ribu tahun itu. Juga ramalan beliau tentang keakraban historikal, ideologikal antara Rusia dengan Barat (Eropah Barat, Amerika) akan menyatukan mereka di dalam menghadapi seteru sama yang datang dari latar historikal, ideologikal yang lain seperti China. Agakan-agakan ini memanglah terbukti salah tetapi sebagai pembaca aku mendapati penilaian McNeill yang dibuat sewaktu 60-an itu sebagai menarik dan tidak kurang nilai sejarahnya. Ramalan-ramalan beliau yang lain, seperti manipulasi pendapat massa lewat instrumen-instrumen propaganda oleh pemerintahan totalitarian tentu sekali telah terbukti benar.

Buku ini adalah pembacaan yang sama sekali bukanlah ringan, hatta bagi standard buku-buku sejarah yang definitif (buku The Penguin History of The World antara yang hadir dalam ingatan). Ayat-ayatnya begitu sarat dengan maklumat-maklumat implikatif. Pembaca pasti akan takjub bagaimana di dalam 879 ms, penulis berjaya memuatkan pembentukan komuniti-komuniti manusia yang berbilang, dan di lokasi geografikal berlainan sepanjang sejarah dengan ketelitian yang begitu seni, tanpa gagal untuk merangkumkannya kembali ke dalam panorama sejarahraya beliau. Namun andai direnungkan dengan mendalam, di sinilah kelemahan buku ini bakal tertayang:

- Sempadan setiap komuniti, bangsa atau negara adalah disebut secara arbitrari dan pembaca diharap untuk mempunyai pengetahuan sejarah atau geografi yang mencukupi. Bandar kuno Carthage dan Ertruria umpamanya tidak pernah disebutkan penulis sebagai terletak di Tunisia moden atau Itali Tengah.
- Untuk setiap dakwaan atau kenyataan yang memerlukan pendalilan yang mapan, penulis sekadar meringkaskannya di dalam satu ayat dan menyediakan nota kaki yang panjang di bawah sebagai rujukan. Aku boleh sahaja katakan bahawa catatan-catatan pinggir tersebut boleh dijamakkan menjadi sebuah buku baru yang nipis. Hal ini menyebabkan pengalaman pembacaan buku ini tidak mengalir dengan cukup lancar.
- Untuk perkembangan sosial sesebuah komuniti yang mirip dengan komuniti lain di dalam tempoh sejarah yang sebelumnya, (walau di mana pun lokasinya) penulis akan sekadar mengingatkan pembaca tentang 'historical parallels' tersebut sebelum kemudiannya bergerak menyentuh poin-poin penting lain yang bersangkutan dengan komuniti tersebut yang unik andai dibandingkan dengan pengalaman historikal komuniti-komuniti terdahulu yang lain. Mungkin itu sebabnya titik perkembangan era moden (pasca abad ke-15) hanya disentuh penulis pada 200 ms terakhir sahaja memandangkan transisi antara suatu status quo kepada status quo yang baru sering kali berlaku dibawah dinamika yang serupa.
- Generalisasi dilakukan secara meluas oleh penulis. Hal ini berlaku tanpa mampu terelakkan untuk sebuah buku yang berambisi tinggi seperti ini. Ini menyebabkan beberapa konklusi beliau tentang satu-satu tamadun ber'perisa' esensialis (konklusi beliau tentang Tamadun Barat umpamanya adalah begitu mirip dengan definisi Tamadun Barat yang diusulkan Prof Syed Naquib Al Attas) dan bakal menyinggung pembaca yang menginginkan suatu tafsiran yang lebih saintifik atau positivis. 0226561445 I really want to read this book. The problem is, I work on a university campus so about a week ago my life got busy. In other words, this book has summer reading written all over it and its not summer.

I did get far enough to make some observations. This book, though dated, is good for anyone who wants a general history of world civilization. And when I say world I mean it. It is called the Rise of the West, I am assuming because the West has become the most powerful culture in the world. But McNeill talks about India and China and other cultures that are not the west. I am not sure if he discusses the Americas prior to Columbus, since I didn't get that far. It seems the general movement of the book is how all these cultures interacted and over time the West became the most powerful. So we don't just get a story of Mesopotamia - Egypt - Persia - Greece but we hear how both India and Greece arose at the same time on different sides of the Middle East.

I wonder if the title would change if it was written today? Maybe in 100 years, as the story continues, it could be The Rise of the East? I mean, just because the West dominated the world in the 1900s does not mean the West always will. This story is not, nor will ever be complete.

If you're looking for a history of the world focusing on interactions of cultures, check this one out. I may crack it open next summer.
0226561445

William H. McNeill » 8 READ & DOWNLOAD

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.

This is not only the most learned and the most intelligent, it is also the most stimulating and fascinating book that has ever set out to recount and explain the whole history of mankind. . . . To read it is a great experience. It leaves echoes to reverberate, and seeds to germinate in the mind.—H. R. Trevor-Roper, New York Times Book Review

The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community

Outdated perhaps, but still awesome!
This book was published in 1963. I thought: Never mind the 820 pages, I'll read through it in about a month, it will be too outdated. Well... yes it is outdated (as the author acklowledges in an accompanying essay), but nevertheless it took about half a year for me to absorb all of it.

McNeill is the first one ever to have written a really global world history (Spengler and Toynbee before him were just speculative theories). Above all, I appreciated his extensive elaboration on the Middle East, China and India, and especially the crucial role of the waves of nomadic people in Eurasia. My narrow-minded eurocentered history view has been changed forever!

Of course, 50 years later, much of the details are not up-to-date any more, but the basic asumption of the book, that human civilisation has grown (with ups and downs) through the never-ending interaction between humans, institutions, and civilizations, this asumption remains true, although McNeill himself, in his accompanying essay (dated 1990) enumerates some fundamental flaws in his story (surprisingly, he thinks he has given too little attention to Chinese history). Some of these flaws he has adjusted in his book The Human Web: A Bird's-Eye View of World History, written with his son John. Nevertheless 'The Rise of the West' remains to me one of the grandest historical works of the 20th century. 0226561445 In The Outline of History, H. G. Wells observed, The natural political map of the world insists upon itself. It heaves and frets beneath the artificial political map like some misfitted giant.

McNeill's panoramic view of history is cut from the same cloth: cultural in continuous clash with political and societal priorities often at odds with pressure building up like a tectonic fault. McNeill sees the interactions and tensions of intermixed peoples pouring out of the steppes for centuries and jostling anxiously against each in the inhabitable regions of Europe.

I love McNeill's uses of the word ecumene to describe the civilized mass fretting beneath the political map. There are ample plates of pictures and ampler footnotes as McNeill consulted libraries of information and summarizes it all with an obvious love for history and the drama of the human story and he isn't afraid to say when there are things he doesn't understand and seem missing from the published expertise.

Somehow, the thought of Greek culture persisting in India long after Alexander's brush with the subcontinent is particularly intriguing and I'd like to know more about this. McNeill discusses the lingered Hellenization in Bactria, the Parthian Empire and how the Indo-Greek kingdom may have eventually rubbed up against the nascent rising Buddhism resulting in Buddhists being Hellenized in wearing Greecian togas. What looks to be a good departure point on this is The Greeks In Bactria & India. 0226561445 This book may be outdated, and the title is a little bit of a misfit, but it still is a very impressive read. William McNeill was the first one to focus in a systematic way on the interactions between cultures and regions. He truly deserves to be named the real father of Global History. See my more elaborate review in my Sense-of-History-account: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... 0226561445 Ревю на база втори том от заглавието, издадено от “Изток-Запад”, и обхващащо периода 600 г. сл.н.е. - 1950 г.

Уилям Макнийл през 1963 г. е публикувал резултатите на титанична задача - да осмисли цялата човешка история с нейните основни властови центрове, и да даде обяснение защо масовата днешна култура, масово утвърждаван светоглед, водещи идеи, е под знака на Запада. Тъй като е амбициозна задача и за читателя, реших да си оставя интерпретацията му на античността за по-добри читателски времена. Втората част, обхващаща периода 600 г. сл. н. е - 1950 г. е достатъчно стимулираща.

——
Харесва ми амбицията на Макнийл - той не третира историята като колекция прашасали факти, а като жива материя, често илюзорна поради ограничеността и пристрастността на източниците си, обединяваща идеите и развитието на човечеството във всевъзможни аспекти. Макнийл интерпретира, извлича идеи и есенция, анализира, дебатира. Така че стандартното учебникарско изреждане на основни факти липсва, а читателят трябва да има основни познания по ключови моменти от епохите.

——
Макнийл подхваща доста структурирано въпроса защо, в крайна сметка, Западът доминира, и имало ли е изобщо някакви твърди предпоставки, предопределеност, ако щете, да се случи точно така? Отговорът му е “не”, и за да се обоснове, той във всяка епоха прави съпоставка и обзор на ключовите (според него) тенденции в няколко ясно обособени властови и цивилизационни центъра, запазващи се относително постоянни през хилядолетията. Това са Китай, Индия, Близкият Изток и Европа (разделена на Източна и Западна).

Съпоставките са изключително интересни.

Китай, например, се отличава със забележителна стабилност и приемственост на идеи, социално и държавно устройство и управленски практики, въпреки многобройните конфликти. Поднебесната империя окончателно намира себе си с Конфуцианството. Неговият хладен рационализъм и прегледна йерархия на житейските роли и отговорности всъщност са ясно видими, и даже “вградени” в “модерния” им комунизъм от последните 50 години. Лошото на конфуцианството е, че от един момент нататък то става изразител на закостенялост и липса на какъвто и да интерес, насочен “навън”. Етичните норми са установени веднъж завинаги, и за да функционира животът и обществото, те трябва само да се спазват.

Близкият изток, особено след изгрева на исляма, също се отличава с идейна консистентност, устояваща на различните конфликти. След като строго религиозното течение около 10-ти век задушава и изтласква последните остатъци от еретичните антични гръцки идеи, свързани с логичен и рационалистичен подход, картината се избистря. Истината е само една, установена е веднъж завинаги в Корана, и никакви модерни интерпретации (каквито са неизбежни и многобройни) не могат и не трябва да я променят или оспорват.

Любопитно е, че в такава среда и след такава победа до известен период вирее поезията, но точните науки нямат шанс за развитие заради присъщия им, отхвърлен от религията (ислям) или етичните догми (Конфуцианство), начин на мислене. А след известен период замира и поезията, спирайки да предлага свежи идеи и задоволявайки се с безобидни имитации на миналото.

За Индия картинката е по-комплексна, с противоречието между ислям и хиндуизъм. Хиндуизмът по Макнийл е един вид “гъба”, която успешно поглъща всякакви опити за влияние, и ги претопява в ежедневието.

Източна Европа с Византийската Империя пък са цивилизационният, хилядолетен фар на света до падането и под османска власт. Макнийл не пропуска и Русия.

А Западът… Е, Западът е далеч, примитивен е, крайно нестабилен, не се очертава доминираща единна система, и затова - когато изобщо му е до това - хвърля по едно око към богатата култура на останалите си “комшии”. Но не особено настойчиво.

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Нещата коренно се променят с падането на Византия. Хаосът в Западна Европа се структура религиозно в католицизма. Там също се търси едната-едничка истина. Но за разлика от исляма и Китай - неуспешно. Твърде много конкуренти за истината са се хванали за гърлата на идеен, етнически и философски принцип, и никой не надделява окончателно. Формите на управление варират, единен победител няма. А с Ренесанса и Реформацията се нарояват нови клонове на християнството и още по-нови и забравени стари светски възгледи за света.

Системният хаос и нестабилност продължават да са основна характеристика, допълнени с любопитство, авантюризъм и вечна агресия. Малко по малко изгрява колониалната мощ, епохата на рационализма и разума, науката като помощник и резултат от вечните промени. Май няма как да не се състоят и двете основни западни революции, които формират битието ни и днес:
# политическата френска революция (оттам и любовта ни към република, разделение на властите, гражданска ангажираност и прочие); и
# индустриално-икономическата английска (парната машина, телеграфът, атомът, периодичната таблица, електричеството, свободният пазар).

И ето ти на - вечно нестабилната, агресивна, обновяваща се, по-непредвидима система печели или най-малкото - влияе - в сблъсък със стабилната, по-мирна, себецентрирана и затворена система.

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Може ли да е чак толкова просто? Не мисля, макар основната идея да е страшно логична, и поради което - до голяма степен вярна. Но само до голяма степен.

——
Макнийл е избирателен ерудит. Няма как да е другояче, предвид факта, че изследва определена постановка и формулира теория. Но той демонстрира доста избирателен оптимизъм, замитайки неудобни аспекти под килима на историята. А когато няма избор, раздразнено поучава, че агресията, войните, робството са аспекти на цивилиз��цията, и толкоз. С което леко не съм съгласна - да, те са инструменти на безогледния успех, спор няма, носят доста преимущества. Но да дефинират термина “цивилизация”? Надали. Затова чак такива поводи за оптимизъм липсват, и някои розови краски са наистина твърде розови в тази приказка за добрия, артистичен, гъвкав Запад. Не е добре, когато ерудирани историци се плашат от някои неудобни истини, и не бива да ги представят като цивилизационни предимства.

——
Също така погледът от втората половина на 19-ти век и още повече от 1914 г. нататък е бегъл, спорадичен и пропуска твърде много. Двете световни войни даже не са зачекнати като ефекти. Датите сякаш са включени само за пълнеж.

——
Рядко все пак се среща такъв обем ерудиция на едно място. Така че прочитът определено си заслужава.

3,5⭐️
Изводите си ги бива, въпреки пропуските, така че все пак ще закръгля нагоре. 0226561445 Covering approximately 7000 years of civilization over the entire world in less than 900 pages for a general audience is a tall order. The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community by W.H. McNeill was written over 50 years ago that changed historical analysis by challenging the leading theories of the day and influenced the study of global history ever since.

McNeill divides his narrative in three parts: the beginnings of civilization in Mesopotamia to 500 B.C., the cultural balance of Eurasia from 500 B.C. to 1500 A.D., and the era of Western dominance since 1500 A.D. Every corner of the world is discusses, but the dominance is in the Eurasia “ecumene” that feature the interaction between for the four great civilizations of the Middle East (including Egypt), India, China, and finally Europe (starting in Greece before slowly moving West). Throughout McNeill highlights the interplay between cultural, political, and economical factors of each civilization as well as how they interacted and influenced each other.

The interaction and influences between different civilizations to McNeill’s narrative as he challenged the theory of the rise and fall of independent civilizations that did not influence one another. Because of the length of both of the book and time frame covered, McNeill did not go into a detail history instead focusing on trends and important historical moments that may or may not involve historical actors like Alexander or Genghis Khan. Yet information is outdated as new sources or archaeological evidence has changed our understanding of several civilizations over the last 50 years.

The Rise of the West takes a long time to read, however the information—though outdated in places—gives the reader a great overview of world history on every point of the globe. W.H. McNeill’s well-researched book is not a dry read and in giving a good background on numerous civilizations giving the reader a solid foundation if they ever decide to go more in-depth on any civilization. 0226561445