How Societies Change

by Daniel Chirot

• ISBN13: 9781412992565
• ISBN10: 1412992567
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-05-27
• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc

Summary

An exploration of how societies have changed over the past five thousand years. The discussion focuses on the idea that industrial societies, despite their great success, have created a new set of recurring and unsolved problems which will serve as a major impetus for further social change.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Evolution and Early Human Societies	p. 1
Physical and Cultural Evolution: Differences and Similarities	p. 1
Causes of Change in Early Societies	p. 10
From Collecting, Hunting, and Fishing to Agriculture	p. 12
Reference Notes	p. 16
Agrarian Societies	p. 17
The Invention of the State	p. 18
Class, Status, and Force: Increasing Inequality and Making It Hereditary	p. 22
Nomads, Migrants, and Other Raiders	p. 25
Great Cultures: The Moral Basis of Agrarian Civilizations	p. 29
The Problem of Administration and the Cycle of Political Decay and Reconstruction	p. 33
The Conservatism of Village Life	p. 40
The Demographic Cycle in Agrarian Societies	p. 42
The Potential for Rapid Innovation: The Importance of Peripheries	p. 46
The Limits of Analogy: Societies Are Not Species, and Cultural Evolution Is Not Biological	p. 52
Reference Notes	p. 55
The Rise of the West	p. 59
Europe's Ecological Advantages	p. 62
Religious Discordance and Political Stalemate: The Basis for Western Rationalization	p. 65
Science, Knowledge, and Exploration in China and Western Europe	p. 67
The Growth of European Empires and the Transformation of the Economy	p. 71
Overcoming the Agrarian Population Cycle	p. 72
The Invention of Nationalism and Its Consequences	p. 75
The Legitimation of Commerce: The Ideological Basis of the Industrial Revolution	p. 77
Reference Notes	p. 80
The Modern Era	p. 85
Industrial Cycles	p. 88
Internal and International Social Consequences of Modernization and Industrial Cycles	p. 97
Economic Class and Political Power in Modern Societies	p. 102
Political Ideologies and Protests: Two Centuries of Revolutions	p. 110
The Unending Effort to Adapt to Modernity	p. 119
Ecological Pressures Persist	p. 121
Reference Notes	p. 123
Toward a Theory of Social Change	p. 129
Why Change Occurs	p. 133
The New or the Old? The Paradox of Institutional Resistance to Change	p. 139
Freedom or Control? The Dilemma of the Modern Era	p. 141
Reference Notes	p. 144
Bibliography	p. 149
Index	p. 155
About the Author	p. 165
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