Plough, Sword, and Book: The Structure of Human History

Front Cover
University of Chicago Press, 1989 - History - 288 pages
"British philosopher/anthropologist Gellner offers a comprehensive theory of history: humans settle into agriculture, produce surpluses, and divide into complex subgroups. Communication becomes pressing. Written language emerges as a controlling super-reality, bringing a Platonic illusion of an eternal world. Gradually, facts take precedence over concepts and "objective knowledge" is born. This scheme takes us from the tribal society to the Royal Society, but Gellner has not met all the challenges. There are still those who think that real knowledge is offered only by theology, or Platonic mathematical and logical reality, or a society free of class tension. And Franz Borkenau urged in End and Beginning (LJ 1/11/81) that all knowable reality is powerfully shaped by language. Thought-provoking but not conclusive."--Www.amazon (Nov. 8, 2010)
 

Contents

1 IN THE BEGINNING
ii
2 COMMUNITY TO SOCIETY
39
3 THE COMING OF THE OTHER
70
4 THE TENSION
91
5 CODIFICATION
113
6 THE COERCIVE ORDER AND ITS EROSION
145
7 PRODUCTION VALUE AND VALIDITY
172
8 THE NEW SCENE
205
9 SELFIMAGES
224
10 PROSPECT
261
Notes
279
Index
284
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