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Men, Machines and History*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

O. G. S. Crawford
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Extract

During The Present Century There Has Appeared A New Kind Of History, Concerned Not With Parts But With The Whole Of Human History. There Were, Of Course, Before This, Many Attempts To Write' Universal History'; But They Consisted Merely In Lumping Together In A Single Continuous Narrative Condensed Histories Of The Chief Countries Of The Old World. This Synthetic Or Accretive Method Has The Same Defects When Concerned With The Sequence Of Time As It Has When Concerned With Space. You Cannot Make A Correct Map Of The World Or Of Any Part Of It Simply By Sticking Together On A Single Sheet The Plans Of Separate Portions Surveyed Independently By Different People, With No Comprehensive Framework Binding Together The Whole Area. Nor, To Vary The Metaphor, Is A Cathedral Constructed By Putting Several Parish Churches Together Beneath One Roof. The New History Is Related To The Old Universal Histories Exactly As Is A Modern Map Of The World To Such Medieval Concoctions As The Hereford Map.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 23 , Issue 90 , June 1949 , pp. 100 - 106
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1949

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References

(2) Ikhnaton: the Great Man versus the Culture Process, by Leslie A. White [University of michigan]. Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 68, No. 2, April-June 1948,

(3) On the use of tools by Primates, by Leslie A. White, Journal of Comparative psychology Vol.34 No.3 December,1942,369-74

(4) Joseph stalin: an interview with the german author emai lludwing; printed by the Cooperative Publishing Society of Foreign Workers in the U.S.S.R., Moscow, 1932.

1 For the development of this thesis see Leslie White, 'On the use of tools by primates I, Journal of Comparative Psychology, Vol. 34, No. 3, December 1942, pp. 369-74; and his note, condensing his remarks, in ANTIQUITYX,X II, pp. 210-1 I.

2 Lilley, pp. 35-6

3 The history of water-mills is an example. It had to be reconstructed from a few meagre references in the ancient writers who were no more interested in such matters than are their modern students.

4 Lilley, p. 18.

5 Malthus (I 766-1 834) said the same thing.

6 The evolution of society is marked by two great stages: primitive or tribal, and civil or national. The tribe and clan are characteristics of primitive society (although the clan is by no means universal); the political state characterizes civil society ' . White, The Great Mun, p.' 95, where the passage quoted above also occurs.

7 Lilley, p. 47.

8 A minor Doint of criticism is concerned with his references to the wheeled plough, which need revision.

9 Prof. White uses the word 'culture-process' to refer to culture in its dynamic rather than its static aspect.