Macrohistory and macrohistorians : perspectives on individual, social, and civilizational change

This dazzlingly original collaboration between two international authors focuses on 20 macrohistoriansthat is to say, historians who have helped shape our entire way of conceiving ourselvesfrom Ssu-Ma Ch'ien and Ibn Khaldun to Oswald Spengler and Marx and Piritim Sorokin and Arnold Toynbee. The authors move toward a general theory of grand social change based on the writings of these macrohistorians and provide a comparative view of macrohistory and sociology. The book brings a cross-cultural and transhistorical perspective to the study of social change, analyzing macrohistorians and macrohistory comparatively and synthetically, from the traditional linear-cyclical divide as well as including broader transcendental and feminist approaches. Like a road map par excellence for the study of civilizational change, the book captures the panoramic sweep of history and helps readers learn to appreciate, and henceforth include in the circle of greats, those non-Western thinkers whose work they may until now have neglected.^L ^L Johan Galtung, Sohail Inayatullah, and the other contributors to ^IMacrohistory and Macrohistorians^R demonstrate that each generation may give new perspectives to ideas that we thought we understood. The book covers the vital perspective out of which the 21st century emerges, and in the cases of Sorokin, Toynbee, and Eisler, deals with theories directly bearing on the potential shape of the next thousand years. It brings a cross-cultural and transhistorical perspective to the study of social change and will be of considerable interest to historians and sociologists as well as students of philosophy, historiography, and political science. Includes Information On Asabiya, Augustine, Christianity, Decline Of Civilization, Evolution, Gaia, Life Cycle, Metaphors, Shape Of Macrohistory, Time, Weltgeist, Yin-yang, Etc. Macrohistory And Macrohistorians: A Theoretical Framework -- Twenty Macrohistorians: A Presentation -- Ssu-ma Ch'ien: The Cycles Of Virtue -- Augustine: The River To Eternity -- Ibn Khaldun: The Strengthening And Weakening Of Asabiya -- Giambattista Vico: Babarism And Providence -- Adam Smith: Self-love And Love Of Others -- George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: Dialectics And The World Spirit -- August Comte: The Law Of The Three Stages -- Karl Marx: Techno-economics Stages -- Herbert Spencer: Progress And Evolution -- Vilfredo Pareto: The Unbreakable Cycle -- Max Weber: History As Interplay And Dichotomy Of Rationalization And Charisma -- Rudolf Steiner: History As Development Toward Emancipation And Freedom -- Oswald Spengler: The Maturation And Decay Of Cultures -- Pierre Teilhard De Chardin: Universal Personalization -- Pitirim Sorokin: The Principle Of Limits -- Arnold Toynbee: Challenge And Response -- Antonio Gramsci: Hegemony And The Materialist Conception Of History -- Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar: Agency, Structure, And Transcendence -- Riane Eisler: Dominator And Partnership Shifts -- Cosmic Gaia: Homeostasis And Planetary Evolution -- Macrohistorians Compared: Toward A Theory Of Macrohistory -- Macrohistorians Combined: Toward Eclecticism -- Social Macrohistory As Metaphor For Personal Microhistory -- Social Macrohistory As Metaphor For World Macrohistory -- App. A Chart Of The Twenty Macrohistorians. App. B Pictorial Representations Of The Twenty Theories: Ch'ien Ssu-ma, Augustine, Khaldun, Vico, Smith, Hegel, Comte, Marx, Spencer, Pareto, Weber, Steiner, Spengler, Teilhard, Sorokin, Toynbee, Gramsci, Sarkar, Eisler, Gaia. Edited By Johan Galtung And Sohail Inayatullah. Based On A Seminar Given Spring 1989 At The Dept. Of Sociology, University Of Hawaii, Honolulu. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [261]-266) And Index.