Review: The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community

The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community by William Hardy McNeill

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



In The Outline of History, H. G. Wells observed, "The natural political map of the world insists upon itself. It heaves and frets beneath the artificial political map like some misfitted giant."

McNeill's panoramic view of history is cut from the same cloth: cultural in continuous clash with political and societal priorities often at odds with pressure building up like a tectonic fault. McNeill sees the interactions and tensions of intermixed peoples pouring out of the steppes for centuries and jostling anxiously against each in the inhabitable regions of Europe.

I love McNeill's uses of the word "ecumene" to describe the civilized mass fretting beneath the political map. There are ample plates of pictures and ampler footnotes as McNeill consulted libraries of information and summarizes it all with an obvious love for history and the drama of the human story and he isn't afraid to say when there are things he doesn't understand and seem missing from the published expertise.

Somehow, the thought of Greek culture persisting in India long after Alexander's brush with the subcontinent is particularly intriguing and I'd like to know more about this. McNeill discusses the lingered Hellenization in Bactria, the Parthian Empire and how the Indo-Greek kingdom may have eventually rubbed up against the nascent rising Buddhism resulting in Buddhists being Hellenized in wearing Greecian togas. What looks to be a good departure point on this is [b:The Greeks In Bactria & India|933486|The Greeks In Bactria & India|W.W. Tarn|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1310236870s/933486.jpg|918474].



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