Pages i – x, 1-25
Preface
The Establishment of Civilization
Chapter 1: The Conditions of Civilization
Chapter 2: The Economic Elements of Civilization
How does one attack a work of this magnitude? I can imagine Will asking himself as he sat down to start volume 1 in 1927.
Does one start with the earliest known history? If so, when was that? It seems even today to be a fast-moving target, with new archaeological discoveries re-writing our pre-writing history almost weekly.
Does one start with an event, such as the first agriculture or the domestication of livestock? Again, it seems that these are moving targets.
Will (Ariel not yet being a co-author) chose to start by providing a brief (90 or so pages) of introduction defining what is meant by civilization. What are its necessary elements? How do we think those emerged? How did the establishment of each element influence the others? What did it mean for how our ancestors lived and related to each other and their environment.
Civilization is social order promoting cultural creation.
Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol 1, pg. 1.
In the first seven words of his work, Durant provides definition and purpose. In his view, humanity builds social order for the purpose of creating cultures. He elaborates: civilization “begins where chaos and insecurity end. For when fear is overcome, curiosity and constructiveness are free, and man passes by natural impulse towards the understanding and embellishment of life.” An aspirational definition, perhaps shaped by his deep study of philosophy.
Chapter 1: The Conditions of Civilization
Durant briefly describes the external factors that ‘condition’ civilization: geological conditions and geographical conditions. The eras between ice ages encourage civilization; ice ages shrink it. Geological events disrupt civilization, or perhaps hasten its disruption, shaking off entire cities and empires with earthquakes and natural disasters. Geography shapes civilization by providing or denying natural resources; by providing or denying trade routes and commerce; by providing or denying safety from disease and predation. And geology interacts with geography, turning once fertile areas arid, creating harbors and passes for commerce. Durant, perhaps ahead of his time, takes the time to explicitly discount race as a condition of civilization, noting that advanced civilizations have arisen at every time, in every climate, and have been built by every race. He goes further to posit that race is more likely to emerge from the conditions of environment and civilization over time than to influence its development in any way.
In addition to external factors, there are other prerequisite conditions for the emergence of a civilization. Durant counts among these political order, common language, unifying moral code, unity of basic beliefs (perhaps – he is less sure on this one), and education of some type to transmit culture to the next generation. If any of these conditions are missing or becomes so, then civilization is in danger.
Upon this foundation then are built the four elements necessary to constitute a civilization: economic provision, political organization, moral traditions, and the pursuit of knowledge and the arts. There is some overlap between Durant’s prerequisites for and elements of civilization, which I haven’t yet sorted out. It will be interesting to see if and how Durant proceeds to sort through these.
Chapter 2: The Economic Elements of Civilization
If man began with speech, and civilization with agriculture, industry began with fire.
Will Durant, SoC, pg 6
In this short chapter, Durant takes us on a journey from hunting and gathering to herding, domestication, agriculture, cooking, industry and specialization, to trade and the beginnings of economy. Along the way, we see a parallel journey from communism (little ‘c’ – living in groups that act as communes sharing all resources, owning no land and few personal possessions, greeting travelers with open hospitality) to agriculture as the cause of property rights and slavery and compelled labor (‘jobs’) to specialization of skills and uneven distribution of resources leading to the developments of markets, barter systems, transport of goods and eventually coinage and finally to the destination of politics as an emergent system to enforce property and trade rights. It is a journey alternately necessary, inspiring, and tragic.
Two powerful thoughts may serve well to encapsulate these journeys:
The moment man begins to take thought of the morrow he passes out of the Garden of Eden into the vale of anxiety; the pale cast of worry settles down upon him, greed is sharpened, property begins, and the good cheer of the “thoughtless” native disappears.
SoC pg. 6
Durant takes care to differentiate between the term ‘savage,’ frequently used within his lifetime, and ‘primitive,’ denoting our ancestors who had not yet invented writing. And he acknowledges that while modern society may exceed our primitive ancestors in accumulated specialization, at the individual level, the primitives possessed greater ingenuity and were much more capable of survival and thriving in concert with the environment than any ‘civilized’ person today is likely to be.
Here, too, the main problems were solved before written history began.
SoC, pg 15
Written about the problem of building trade routes, a recurring theme of the first section of the book so far, and one that captures too the ingenuity of our species. The main problems, having all been solved before written history, suggest that for all of our pride in the advancements of modern society, they are but refinements of knowledge older than the millennia. We fund ourselves not smarter or more creative than the ancients, merely the beneficiaries of thousands of years of accumulated wisdom, much of which we might struggle to recreate (as has happened in the not-too-distant past) should the need arise. A humbling idea indeed.