This is an old textbook used in a long forgotten course I either took, or was a Teaching Assistant for, probably 30 years ago at McMaster University in Hamilton Ontario. It has 1098 pages of text, followed by several unnumbered pages entitled: Rulers of Principal European States since 700 A.D. After this are 29 pages of an index headed by a pronunciation guide.
Usually on Bookstory I randomly choose a book off my shelf. But in the past little while I have been cogitating on the nature of western civilization (when dealing with an entire civilization or civilizations, one should cogitate, not merely think). As I was scanning in the book sleeve, I noticed for the first time the plural use, ‘civilizations’. What got me thinking about this topic most recently was an article I read concerning a member of an indigenous band located in the United States. Their traditional territories occupied land on both sides of the Canada/U.S. border, but no members had lived in Canada for many decades. He decided to hunt in Canada, then go to the local authorities and turn himself in, specifically to initiate a legal judgement. The trials went on, finally reaching the Supreme Court of Canada, which ruled he had a right to hunt in traditional lands, even though no member of his band lived in Canada. This got me to cogitating on the idea of borders and countries and nations and nation states. Then I segued to thinking about the West.
What plural civilizations called western have their been? This book says the first ‘western’ civilization began about 3200 BC with the rise of cities that required full time warrior-rulers, administrators and priests. This mirrors generally what I was taught in Grade 11 History in my Canadian High School: civilization began for the West in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece. Then came Rome and then Christianity, then the Middle Ages, then Early Modern, then the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. Curious that they don’t provide a section on the United States, but include it at the end of the section on the consequences of the French and Industrial revolutions. Apparently the ‘West’ = western Europe. They don’t explain why they use the plural. I can guess as there are very few points of comparison between Babylonia and the European Union.
Curious indeed.
Bookstory 