William Hardy McNeill (born October 31, 1917) is a Canadian-American world historian and author, particularly noted for his writings on Western civilization. He is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Chicago where he has taught since 1947.
William McNeill was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the son of theologian and educator John T. McNeill. He was educated at the University of Chicago, obtaining a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in 1938, and Master of Arts (M.A.) in 1939. In 1941 he was drafted into the U.S. army and served in World War II in the European theater. After the war, he obtained his PhD at Cornell University in 1947. In that same year he began teaching at the University of Chicago, which became his home throughout his professional career.
McNeill's most popular work, completed early in his career, is The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community (University of Chicago Press, 1963). The book explored world history in terms of the effect of different old world civilizations on one another, and especially the dramatic effect of Western civilization on others in the past 500 years. It had a major impact on historical theory, especially its emphasis on cultural fusions, in contrast to Oswald Spengler's view of discrete, independent civilizations.
Rise of the West won the 1964 U.S. National Book Award in History and Biography.In 1976 Mcneill wrote Plagues and Peoples, an important early contribution to the impact of disease on human history and contributed to the emergence of environmental history as a discipline.
McNeill was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama on February 25, 2010. The citation recognizes "his exceptional talent as a teacher and scholar at the University of Chicago and as an author of more than twenty books, including The Rise of the West, which traces civilizations through 5,000 years of recorded history."
发表于2024-11-24
The Pursuit of Power 2024 pdf epub mobi 电子书
看到歐陽泰的那本《火藥時代》,這才想起了本書買了很久都沒閱讀。歐洲何以稱霸世界,是自上個世紀以來的顯學,從各種角度去探討,經濟、社會、軍事乃至於文化地理等都有,切入的時間範圍也長達兩三百年。2016年過世的著名史家威廉 H. 麥克尼爾 (William H. McNeill) 也撰寫了...
评分补课。真是杰出而有趣的军事经济史与军事社会史!再注意到此书要在《大国的兴衰》之前六年出版,就更显非凡了。然而,这般出色论述的结果却是对“全球政府”的预期,真是令人失望。只要人之与人之间的差异还在,颇为和平美好的全球政府就绝无可能。全球政府之下,就不会有内战...
评分补课。真是杰出而有趣的军事经济史与军事社会史!再注意到此书要在《大国的兴衰》之前六年出版,就更显非凡了。然而,这般出色论述的结果却是对“全球政府”的预期,真是令人失望。只要人之与人之间的差异还在,颇为和平美好的全球政府就绝无可能。全球政府之下,就不会有内战...
评分近代以来,被西方入侵和征服的东方国家,第一个反应就是羡慕西方的船坚炮利,先买后造西式枪炮军舰,以为这样就能抵御外侮,富国强兵。然而无一不碰得头破血流,为何?西方文明,其器物乃用,制度与精神乃本也。了解西方军事革命的历程,才能认识到我们的文明究竟欠缺哪些东西...
评分忽略本书编辑中产生的偏差(五六个错字至少我发现的)以及译者明显不擅长的军事常识(比如range的理解,坦克的射程不会是100公里而只能是行程)之后,你会发现一本能帮助你理解世界现今格局的书。理清历史发展规律,当然主要是关注人类社会中军事与科技在受到压力和刺激后如何...
图书标签: 历史 世界史 军事史 历史社会学 技术史 政治 英國 英国
In this magnificent synthesis of military, technological, and social history, William H. McNeill explores a whole millennium of human upheaval and traces the path by which we have arrived at the frightening dilemmas that now confront us. McNeill moves with equal mastery from the crossbow--banned by the Church in 1139 as too lethal for Christians to use against one another--to the nuclear missile, from the sociological consequences of drill in the seventeenth century to the emergence of the military-industrial complex in the twentieth. His central argument is that a commercial transformation of world society in the eleventh century caused military activity to respond increasingly to market forces as well as to the commands of rulers. Only in our own time, suggests McNeill, are command economies replacing the market control of large-scale human effort. The Pursuit of Power does not solve the problems of the present, but its discoveries, hypotheses, and sheer breadth of learning do offer a perspective on our current fears and, as McNeill hopes, "a ground for wiser action."
"No summary can do justice to McNeill's intricate, encyclopedic treatment. . . . McNeill's erudition is stunning, as he moves easily from European to Chinese and Islamic cultures and from military and technological to socio-economic and political developments. The result is a grand synthesis of sweeping proportions and interdisciplinary character that tells us almost as much about the history of butter as the history of guns. . . . McNeill's larger accomplishment is to remind us that all humankind has a shared past and, particularly with regard to its choice of weapons and warfare, a shared stake in the future."--Stuart Rochester, "Washington Post Book World "
"Mr. McNeill's comprehensiveness and sensitivity do for the reader what Henry James said that Turgenev's conversation did for him: they suggest 'all sorts of valuable things.' This narrative of rationality applied to irrational purposes and of ingenuity cannibalizing itself is a work of clarity, which delineates mysteries. The greatest of them, to my mind, is why human beings have never learned to cherish their own species."--Naomi Bliven, "The New Yorker
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以后觉眼光而言,麦氏此书许多材料和观点或已颇有争议(尤其过分痴迷技术细节以至于历史动力学几乎全系于此),但在学术史上地位必然崇高。不仅后世作者必须引用,更且将军事发展和军事组织扩散重新置于宏观人类史和全球史中心:既然人类社会基本命题之一是暴力之使用及限制,现代国家经典定义为垄断合法暴力使用,且命令与控制为现代理性社会最大特征,则暴力—战争与军事应与政治(权力)经济(市场)社会(利益集团关系)文化(意识形态)并立为重要元素。军事技术进步有其特殊应用和兵员训练要求,进而带来组织模式和动员体制变革,引发权力变化;军事投资、军队雇佣和专门化,先进国家军队对外扩张,军事技术转化为民用工业技术是市场扩展、全球一体化和技术变革的重要动力;军队在欧陆国家竞争中的作用和演变促进理性科层制采用和国家机器变化。
评分过去真实的历史同我们先辈原来的计划和意愿是大不相同的,未来同我们任何人的意图也是大不相同的
评分以后觉眼光而言,麦氏此书许多材料和观点或已颇有争议(尤其过分痴迷技术细节以至于历史动力学几乎全系于此),但在学术史上地位必然崇高。不仅后世作者必须引用,更且将军事发展和军事组织扩散重新置于宏观人类史和全球史中心:既然人类社会基本命题之一是暴力之使用及限制,现代国家经典定义为垄断合法暴力使用,且命令与控制为现代理性社会最大特征,则暴力—战争与军事应与政治(权力)经济(市场)社会(利益集团关系)文化(意识形态)并立为重要元素。军事技术进步有其特殊应用和兵员训练要求,进而带来组织模式和动员体制变革,引发权力变化;军事投资、军队雇佣和专门化,先进国家军队对外扩张,军事技术转化为民用工业技术是市场扩展、全球一体化和技术变革的重要动力;军队在欧陆国家竞争中的作用和演变促进理性科层制采用和国家机器变化。
评分过去真实的历史同我们先辈原来的计划和意愿是大不相同的,未来同我们任何人的意图也是大不相同的
评分sweeping analysis of world-historical breakthrough
The Pursuit of Power 2024 pdf epub mobi 电子书