History of World Civilization - Greek Civilization: Polis; Athens

“Men are the Polis.”

-Thucydides

“Man is an animal whose nature it is to live in a polis”

-Aristotle

Greek Civilization in fact has great meaning to Western Civilization. According to Dr. Donald Kagan, the professor of Yale University in his lecture on “Introduction to Greek History (2007)” said that “the positions of the Greeks are at the most significant starting point of Western Civilization, which is the culture that most powerfully shapes not only the West but most of the world today.” Actually, Greek Civilization was not one of the four centers of world civilizations. However, unlike other civilization emerged in ancient time, Greek Civilization has been admired due to its significance in shaping its political, economic, social and cultural aspects.

In speaking of Greek Civilization, there is Greek Bronze Age which includes Minoan and Mycenaean civilization. With Dorian invasion and the end of the Mycenaean civilization, there came “the Dark Ages”. During the Dark Ages, the cities and palaces, and other products of civilization were destroyed. Following the Dark Ages, there now came the emergence of city-states which the Greeks termed “Polis”. The period that the polis began to emerge can be considered not only as the time of recovery but also the peak of Greek Civilization in terms of politics, society, economy and culture.

Polis actually means a lot in dealing of Greek Civilization. Perhaps, without the time of polis the Greek Civilization would not be significance. It is to say that during the time of polis, those characteristics of Greek civilization which distinguished Greek Civilization itself from other civilization were shaped during this time. M. H Hansen in his book “More Studies in the Greek Polis (1996)” emphasized the significance of polis in studying Greek civilization by saying that “The study of Greek political structures must begin with the polis.”

Polis is generally defined as a city, a city state and also citizenship and body of citizens (Wikipedia). However, polis is something more than that. Polis is in fact something that cannot be defined in single word or sentence. M. H Hansen (1996) also said that “the question of what the polis is has no simple and straightforward answer. In fact, it is implicit in this collection of essays that there is not nor can there be any satisfactory, all-inclusive definition of a polis.” Aristotle, the great philosopher in the time of polis also said that “a man who is by nature is without a polis is either more or less than a man.” It is to mean that if a man does not need a polis, he is god because men need a polis. This saying of Aristotle may reflect the idea and concept of Greek people about a polis. To the Greeks, a polis was therefore what they essentially needed as long as they were a man.

Poleis were city-states established by the group of Greek people who proudly termed themselves “Hellene”. They liked to distinguish themselves from other groups of people for they thought to have superior culture than others. For this reason, indeed poleis were not just place where Hellenes lived in but the pride and spirit of Greek people.

From about BC 750 to the time when the poleis were invaded by Alexander the Great, the king of Macedonia, Greek people had left a lot of achievements. The achievements of Greek people in several aspects of their civilization during the time of polis would explain why the polis is considered significant in dealing with Greek civilization.

Politics

Greek city-states were self-governing and not ruled or controlled by any form of central power. Instead, it is noted that by the time of Aristotle (fourth century BC) there were more than hundreds of Greek Democracies. However none of those poleis that were democracies was as powerful, stable, organized as that of Athens.

Sparta and Athens were most powerful and significant among the thousands of poleis. But since Sparta was a champion of oligarchy, the political system was not that different with that of other civilizations, in this chapter I would like to discuss about Athenian government which was democracy which was totally new at the time.

Athenian Democracy

In Athens the political system had gone through several changes. Starting with Monarchy it changed to Oligarchy then to Democracy. The Origin of Athenian Democracy can be traced back to the time of Solon, the one of great wise men of Greece. Actually he did not believe in “democratika” which means “people-power” but the laws he constituted became the basis of democracy to be established in Athens. He was the one who arranged Athenian political society on a new basis. Solon’s constitution swept the political system in which only aristocrats could hold position by making wealth the sole qualification for office-holding. He also pushed through with the policy of Shaking-off of Burdens which in Greek is Seisachteia that cancelled all outstanding debts. In fact this law was to rectify the wide-spread of serfdom and slavery in Athens. Solon also divided the classes into four- pentakosiomedimnoi, hippeis, zeugitai and thetes and according to the class, the right of politics was given.

Solon cannot be a founder of democracy but at least he opened the way of democracy by restricting aristocrat-centered political system and freeing the people and making them a citizen. Solon’s constitution was the starting point of Athens democracy.

So what is democracy? It in Greek, is “democratika” which means “people-power”. Peter John Rhodes in his book “Athenian Democracy (2004)” explain about classical democracy in Athens that “the classical democracy of the fifth and fourth centuries was based as far as possible on active involvement of the citizens. Making decisions was entrusted to the citizen directly, in an ekklesia, assembly, open to all citizens.” Athenian democracy was direct democracy that the citizens could directly participate. The democratic government of Athens rested on three main institutions- The Assembly of Demos, the Council of 500 and the People’s court. The Assembly was an opportunity for Citizens to speak their opinion and to vote for certain matter of government of their city. The Council of 500 represented the full-time government of Athens. It consisted of 500 citizens, 50 from each of ten tribes. This body had authority to issue decrees on its own, regarding certain matter. But its main function was to prepare the agenda for meeting of assembly. The People’s court juried of citizens would listen to cases, would vote on the guilt or innocence of their fellow citizens, and vote on punishments for those found guilty.

I would like to discuss more about the “Assembly” because it is what differs from the democracy today. Citizenship was not given to all the people living in Athens but to men only. Aristotle in his book “Athenian Constitution (1952)” explained about the citizenship and its qualifications that “Citizenship belongs to persons of citizen parentage on both sides, and they are registered on the rolls of their demes at the age of eighteen. At the time of their registration the members of the deme make decision about them by vote on oath, first whether they are shown to have reached the lawful age, and if they are held not to be of age they go back again to the boys, and secondly whether the candidate is a freeman and of legitimate birth; after this, if the vote as to free status goes against him, he appeals to the jury-court, and the demesmen elect five men from among themselves to plead against him, and if it is decided that he has no claim to be registered, the state sells him, but if he wins, it is compulsory for the demesmen to register him.”

Although it was different with democracy today for Athens limited citizenship to adult man of Athens, the Athenian democracy is still significant for it became the basis or origin of democracy, the most prevalent political system nowadays not only in West but also in East.

Athenian democracy was proven its superiority during the Persian war. Paul Cartledge, the professor of Greek History at the University of Cambridge said that “It was under this political system that Athens successfully resisted the Persian onslaughts of 490 and 480/79…That victory in turn encouraged the poorest Athenians to demand a greater say in the running of their city, and in the late 460s Ephialtes and Pericles presided over a radicalisation of power that shifted the balance decisively to the poorest sections of society. This was the democratic Athens that won and lost an empire”

It was after Persian War when the Athens formed “Delian League”. Formation of Delian League was quite significant as far as democracy was concerned. Peter John Rhodes (2004) mentioned that “the first signs of the concept of demo-kratia, people-power, appear about the time; shortly afterwards we find Athens imposing democratic constitutions on some members of its alliance, the Delian League and we find Athens being regarded as a champion of democracy” Victory in the war with Persia encouraged the people of low class to demand political rights. Herodotus once said that “Great things are won by great dangers.” Athenian Democracy may be a great thing won by great danger.

Education

The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future life.

-Plato, Republic

Undoubtedly, the world’s greatest philosophers are namely Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. They were the ones who founded the basis of Western philosophy. What we may notice about them is that they were the philosopher of Greece, during the time of polis. For Athenian education advocated training citizens’ intellectual ability. Unlike Sparta, the military whose purpose of education was to produce well-drilled marching army, Athenian interest in education was at producing intellectual, cultural, and artistic citizens.

Rupert Clendon Lodge, the author of “Plato’s theory of Education (2001)” clarified the meaning of education base on theory of Plato shown in his book “Republic” that “Education is thought of as a specifically human institution: a social technique or art not found in rerum naturae, but invented by man. As a technical art, education represents, not nature, but a human improvement upon nature.” Base on his account on Plato’s theory on education, we would infer that Greeks had a different concept about education with that of people of today. For Greek people, education does not mean mere “schooling” but encompasses “socially controlled experience (Clendon, 2001)” Plato according to Rupert (1947) understood education as a definite art: an art which guides, reshapes, and controls human experience in accordance with an intelligible principle of value.” Education was offered to the citizen in purpose of humanizing and Hellenizing them and helping them fully understand about their Hellenic society. For that reason, education is for the sake of their lives in their Hellenic society.


For Athens, education was quite practical and closely related to society and politics. Plato, the greatest philosopher of that time also advocated education for citizenship, and education for leadership. Plato was quite interested in education so he founded Academia to educate his people. For he was an advocate of elitism, he also advocated education for producing elites who were future leader of the society.

In Athens education began at the age of 6. When he/ she became 6 years old, he/she was sent to the schools which were all private at the time. For the teachers were mostly retired military man, the way of educating was quite strict. The students were taught mainly three subjects: Letters, Music and Gymnastic.

As mentioned above, Athenian education was aiming to produce culturally, intellectually outstanding citizens. So the school offered students a letters class in which they learned how to read, write and speak. They were also taught literacy like the words of Homer. Aristotle in his book Politics said that “the literary education is to train the mind.” They were also educated to be able to play instruments for improving their artistic and aesthetic sense.

Aristotle about music said “Music, though of no practical use, provides a noble and liberal employment of leisure.”With spiritual education, the students were given physical education like wrestling, boxing and javelin casting in purpose of improving extensive physical culture.

At age 18, regardless of social status, all Athenian boys were required to attend military school for two years. After that if they wanted, they were able to enter the academies established by Plato and Aristotle for higher learning. Athenian people given philosophical lessons that widened their insights in lives and the world they live.

As I have mentioned above, the education was quite practical in many ways for its aims were to offer proper understanding about the society and life and to improve the abilities needed in order for them to live as an Athenian.

Education, as it goes to higher level, was often related with philosophy that could be considered as highly intellect activity. This education enabled Athenian people to achieve distinct and highly developed civilization.

Acropolis and Agora

In the polis, there were two special places: Acropolis and Agora. These two places had significant meaning in Greek Civilization. Acropolis may represent the center of religion in Greek polis and Agora would represent the center of political, social and economic activities.

Most of polis at the time had a hill at the center of city. At first polis was referring to the hills in Greek city-states but as Greek city-states began to be called “polis” the hill became “acropolis”. The word “Akcros” meant “high”. So Acropolis would mean “highest city”. Since Acropolis was a hill, it was suitable spot to build wall to defend the city. Later on, people built the temple for gods and goddesses that were believed to guard poleis.

In the mid-fifth century BC, when the Acropolis became the seat of the Athenian League and Athens was the greatest cultural centre of its time, Perikles initiated an ambitious building project which lasted the entire second half of the fifth century BC. Athenians and foreigners alike worked on this project, receiving a salary of one drachma a day. The most important buildings visible on the Acropolis today - that is, the Parthenon, the Propylaia, the Erechtheion and the temple of Athena Nike, were erected during this period under the supervision of the greatest architects, sculptors and artists of their time.

Acropolis was indeed the ambitious project of Athenian people who were highly advanced in terms of culture. Parthenon was one of the most significant buildings in their project. It was a temple for the Greek god “Athena” located in Athenian Acropolis. The temple was built in purpose of housing a 40-foot-high statue of Athena Parthenos sculpted by Phedias. Parthenon is built in Doric order and its decorative sculptures are showing the high point of Greek art. A side from the significance of Parthenon in terms of religion, it also had great meaning as far as art was concerned.

This monumental temple was indeed not only a great Doric style structure but the religious sprit of Athenian people. Athenian people dedicated this temple which they built on high hill in their polis to praise their guard goddess. The monumental religious festival such as Panathinaia was held in it. Many Athenians gathered in Acropolis their religious and cultural festivals. For during this time the religion was closely related arts and literature, the Acropolis would become not only the center of religion but also the center of culture and art. So Acropolis in Athenian civilization would symbolize its highly advanced cultural, religious and artistic spirit of Athenian people. Indeed, it is quite clear reflection of the splendour, power and wealth of Athens at its greatest peak, the golden age of Perikles.

Agora was an open place of assembly where Athenian citizens gathered for a wide variety of purposes. On any given day the space might be used as a market, or for an election, a dramatic performance, a religious procession, military drill, or athletic competition. Here administrative, political, judicial, commercial, social, cultural, and religious activities all found a place together in the heart of Athens, and the square was surrounded by the public buildings necessary to run the Athenian government.

The most significant of Athenian socio-political characteristic was active participations of citizens. For it was democratic society, the citizens could freely appeal their opinions and actively act and perform as a citizen. Guaranteeing the civil rights of citizens enabled Athenian citizens to perform what they can in society more freely and actively. This was driving force of Athenian society to be active society and lead itself to the advancement in politics, economy, and especially culture.

That is why Agora was considered important. For Athens was society whose people were active and social, the place where those people gathered must have been considered significant. Indeed, with Acropolis, Agora was the center of politics, economy and culture.

Public speeches and political agenda were delivered in this place. Active discussions about politics were done in this place. Market developed and economic activities were done in this place. Cultural and social activities like playing music and drama were performed in this place. This was Agora, the center of communication. Rome later on succeeded “Agora” which they renamed “Forum”.

Likewise, Acropolis and Agora were the central places that clearly showed what Athenian civilization was. Every significant aspect of Athens was shown in these places. Religion, Politics, Economy and culture of Athens were all clustered in this area and performed.



Poleis were the society formed by the people who called themselves “Hellenes”. In the word “Hellenes” there is pride and vigor of Greek people. Indeed, as mentioned above, they developed their own unique civilization which set up the foundation of Western civilization.

Greek cultures developed with civilization were widespread through Hellenization project of Alexander the Great. The unique and independent Greek culture became root of Rome. Then it became the root of Westerns.

What is the political system which is most prevalent today? It is democracy emerged in Athens. Who are the scholars whose theories are studied most today? Undoubtedly they are Socrates, Plato and Aristotle who lived at the time of polis. Their philosophies became the basis of Western philosophy.

These evidences prove significance of Greek civilization. Greece is indeed mother country of West. Although Greece is not really strong and prosperous today, this country is still respected for its legacies and attributions to Western civilization. It is where Western civilization was born. And still, the world is under Hellenic influence. For about 2500 years, Hellenes have been existing in field of politics, economy and culture. When we deal with Western spirit and root, undoubtedly it will be Greece that we will be talking about.




Sources:

Aristotle, Athenian Constitution in 23 Volumes, Vol. 20, translated by H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1952.

Aristotle “Politics, Book V”
Peter John Rhodes (2004) Athenian Democracy Oxford: Oxford University Press

Donald Kagan (2007). Introduction to Greek History. Open Yale Courses

M. H. Hansen (1996) More Studies in the Ancient Greek Polis Oxford: Oxford Press

John Porter (2009). The Archaic Age and the Rise of the Polis Retrieved 23:24 November 11 2009 from file:///F:/Polis.html

Polis (March 28, 2010). In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia Retrieved 18:08 March 28, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polis

Michael Streich (2008). Forms of Government in Ancient Greek City States Retrieved from http://greek-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/forms_of_government_in_ancient_greek_city_states

Paul Cartledge (2009). Ancient history in-depth Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greekdemocracy_01.shtml

Christopher W. Blackwell (2003) Athenian Democracy: a brief overview Retrieved from http://www.stoa.org/projects/demos/article_democracy_overview?page=3&greekEncoding=

Rupert Clendon Lodge, Solomon Frank (2001) “Plato’s Theory of Education” London: Routledge

Source- Greek Technology

Since there always come two sources for each topic, I would not able to avoid comparision between two sources. This time, I am not really apprecitated with Wiki source. Although it succeeded to list the inventions and techonology developed during Ancient time of Greek Civilization and also state explanation about those things, the source is too limited to be used my study. The extent or degree that wiki is dealing with is too small or narrow in fact.

Compare to Wiki, the second source was able to give much broader information about Greek Technology, not only techonology itself but the background, scientists and its significance. However, the problem with the source in comparision to Wiki, the second source was not arranged very well, its contents are somehow confusing and not clear. In categorazing and grouping the topic, I would say Wiki was better than the second one.

Source- Two sources on Greek Arts, differnt categorization

From the two different sources about Greek Art, I was able to find intersting fact that the two, even though they were dealing with same topic, were totally different as far as way of cateogirzation was concerned.

The Source from Wikiepdia is actually well categorized source in my own opinion. Texts are categorized according to the different forms or kinds of art. (i.e. Pottery, Metal Vessels, Arcithecture etc.) It seems that the source focused on "ART" itself. I mean to say that the source is not really concerning about other aspect of Greek Civilization in relation to the Art. The source was able to give information about Greek Art but nothing more.

But unlike Wikipedia source, the second source was more comprehensive and useful for me. As a historian, my concern is not really Art itself, but its implication, and relationship with other aspect of Greek Civilization. In the Second source, the texts were arranged according to the timeline, development, different civiliation, and other aspect of Greek Civilization. For example one of the contents of the source was "Ancient Greek Colonization and Trade and their Influence on Greek Art". Actually this kind of source was exactly what I was looking for. My concern was not only to widen my knowledge about Greek Art but also to find out its implication in Greek Civilization.

So, as a historian, I would prefer the second source but I would also say that as long as ART is a subject and concerned, Wikipedia source will be quite useful too.


Source 1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_in_ancient_Greece
Source 2 http://witcombe.sbc.edu/ARTHgreece.html

Source- Comparision of Two Sources on Greek Religion

Regarding sources for Greek Religion, I would like to compare two sources posted in our module. The first source posted is from Wikipedia, well known internet encyclopedia which has extensive data. In my opinion the source the Wikipedia regarding Greek Religion, could give me general and broad view with well organized contents. However, one thing I felt something wanting was that it could not deal with depth study on the topic, Greek Religion. Well, the source from Wikipedia is quite nice to obtain general knowledge for certain topic but for more deeper studies, it might lack something. So I would like to recommend the source from Wikipedia for Elementary to High school students and even for college students who want to have general knowledge about the topic.

For the second source from http://www.greekreligion.org/, I would say I am quite satisfied. Well, it offers us not only secondary sources but some primary sources which proffessionals and majoring students on the topic necessarily need. And the source deals with more deeper parts of the contents of the topic so the user may obtain not only general but also specific and deeper knowledge on it. Therefore, I would have to recommend the source for those who want to go for advanced study on Greek Religion.

Climate, and the Rise and fall of Civilization

There are a number of different definitions of “Civilization”. Chamber’s Dictionary defines civilization as “a stage of development in human society that is socially, politically, culturally and technologically advanced” and Wikipedia considers it “a complex society or culture group characterized by dependence upon agriculture, long-distance trade, state form of government, occupational specialization, urbanism, and class stratification”. But one thing those definitions have in common is that civilization may refer to emergence of “Society”, the organized group or association, meeting to share a common interest of activity and all kinds of development (specifically material) occur in it.

As humankind has gone through thousands of years, the civilization has been developed and progressed in many ways, but the essential (basic) form or basis of civilization has never changed. People settle in certain places and still form a group which we call a society and the society develops and progresses by interaction between people or societies. With this premise, we would say that it is quite meaningful to have a question that; why and how did civilization begin and emerge? What was the most influential factor of the emergence of civilizations?

There are many assertions on the factors of the emergence of civilization; being able to domesticate, invention of farming, invention of tools etc. However, first of all of those assumptions, I would like to point out the common point of four centers of civilization which are very first of emergence of civilization; Mesopotamian, Indian, Egyptian, and Chinese Civilization which is geographical position and climate. Actually, we do not know exactly why people formed a group. The reason may be possibly found in psychology which deals with human instinct. But as a historian, what we can say about earlier people is that they formed a group and settled along the river bank and in where the climate was warm and humid and this tendency of group of people was found in all of four centers of civilization. This fact is really strong appeal for us not to overlook environmental factor and influence on the civilization. One scholar says I quote: Climate shifts have both helped to foster the rise of civilization and contributed to their demises. William Henry Mcneill in his book “Plague and People (1998)” emphasizes the importance of environmental biological factor in human society. Arnold Toynbee in his book “A study of history (1935-1948)” also mentions about environmental factor in civilization as he suggests “Challenge and Response” theory.

If we notice that the early civilizations were based on agriculture, domestication and also on hunting and gathering food, we would know that the civilizations were strongly affected by climate and geographical factors. And in fact the geographical position of four centers of civilization which were suitable for farming, domesticating, hunting, and gathering food may be the important factor of emergence of civilization. We must not ignore the fact that all the four civilizations emerged in similar place in terms of geography and climate.

Nick Brooks, in his paper “Cultural responses to aridity in the Middle Holocene and Increased Social Complexity (2006)” closely looks into the environmental, specifically climatic influence on the emergence of civilization. In his paper, he proposes that the four centers of civilizations especially Sahara were warm and humid but as the world faced a profound climatic and environmental changes: weakening of monsoon system and widespread of aridification during 6th and early 5th century BC in those centers, the social development and complexity achieved during the early civilization were driven. In other words, the civilization collapsed by environmental deterioration.

Ancient civilizations, unlike nowadays, were quite dependant on environmental setting because of they were agricultural based. So the widespread of aridity was destructive enough to collapse the civilizations down. There was nothing the people could do in facing environmental challenge which was out of their control. As what Toynbee proposes, the civilization develops and progresses through facing and overcoming challenges but at the same time the civilization which was not able to respond to the challenge disappeared into history. As long as we, human beings are the part of the nature and environment, we cannot get ourselves out of environmental influence.

As the evidence, I would want to talk about the crisis of our very own civilization being brought by environmental challenge. Our civilization, the world, is now at critical moment. Our abuse on our motherland resulted in global warming which can cause complete destruction of the Earth. This environmental challenge is (Although the human being caused it) now being stronger and driving our civilization into a corner. Like what Toynbee says, if we cannot respond to the challenge, the civilization we achieved might be vanished.

Both recent civilization and ancient civilization face an environmental challenge. What is different from recent to ancient civilization is that the environmental challenge is caused by human being in recent time unlike which of ancient time that was made by nature itself. But the point is that the civilization faces environmental specifically climatic changes (When we say “Climate Change” it does not mean changing day by day, or week by week, or even month by month. What changes on that time-scale is weather, not climate. Climatic change happens in long duration) and the fate of civilization depends upon how people respond to that challenge. Not minding the cause of it (Whether human activity or nature itself), environmental (Climate) changes are great challenge which are perhaps impossible to be overcome to mankind and the societies.

I see the two sides of Environment, climate in specific that can cause both rise and fall of civilization. As long as we are human beings, who are the part of environment, we will not be able to get out of the environmental influence. It is expected that especially during ancient time in which the societies were greatly dependant on agriculture and sensitive with climatic change, the environmental change was quite big challenge to people and civilization.

Therefore, I would agree with the well-grounded scientific speculation of Brooks considering climate as the most important factor in the rise and fall of civilization. Noting that when people settled in certain place, climatic matter was considered important in choosing the place to for them settle (suitable for farming, domesticating etc.) and this was the beginning of civilization. To sum up the civilizations began with considering climate and collapsed when the climate went against them.


Sources:

Toynbee, A. J. (1935-1948). A study of history (Vol. 1). London: Oxford University.

McNeill, W.H. (1998). Plagues and Peoples. New York: Anchor Books.

Brooks, Nick (2006) Cultural responses to aridity in the Middle Holocene and increased social complexity. Quarterly International, 151 (2006) 29–49. Retrieved January 07, 2009 from http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~e118/WS/Documents/QI151Brooks_reform.pdf.

Donald Kennedy (2000) Climate and Civilization, The Scientific Evidence for Climate Change and How Our Response to It May Influence National Polic. New York: State University of New York College at Oneonta

Civilization (November 29, 2009) In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia Retrieved 08:37 November 29, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilization

Civilization Chambers Dictionary (1996). Edinburgh: Chambers

Presentation of Critical Analysis of the Philosophy of an Historian

The Guns of August and the Philosophy of History


“The Guns of August”, is a military history book written by Barbara Tuchman. It describes the First World War and the events behind of the war. The book was an immediate bestseller and was on the New York Times bestseller list for forty-two consecutive weeks and won the Pulitzer Prize. Even John F. Kennedy was so impressed by the book. He even gave copies to his cabinet and principal military advisors and commanded them to read it. Some people say that Kennedy drew from “The Guns of August” to help in dealing with the Cuban Missile Crisis. (Wikipedia)

“The Guns of August” is written with great insight and historical knowledge. It is not just a book but a book which implies profound philosophy of history. As my last work in the subject Philosophy of History, I would like to look into the philosophy of Barbara Tuchman shown in the one of her greatest books “The Guns of August”. I will try to show the philosophies of history of various philosopher which are impressed into on the book. So I would like to discuss more on philosophy of Barbara Tuchman in narrating the story of the First World War rather the story itself.

As I read the book, I was able to know that Tuchman used a priori imagination which has documentary support in narrating the stories of the World War I. In the first part of her book, she states that: “Sources for the narrative and for all quoted remarks are given in the Notes at the end of the book. I have tried to avoid spontaneous attribution or the “he must have” style of historical writing… All conditions of weather, thoughts or feelings and states of mind public or private, in the following pages have documentary support.”(Tuchman, 1962) Actually, she described feelings and states of mind of characters but as she says her descriptions are not spontaneous but based on historical facts. That is a priori imagination with historical knowledge and understanding. Some people say that Tuchman is a master of detail. As people read her book, they feel like they are in the war. I believe that describing of details is impossible with only documents. There must be a sort of imagination to describe details of an event.

In order to examine the philosophy of Barbara Tuchman and her view of the First World War, I carefully look how she begins the story. The story begins with funeral of Edward VII on May 20, 1910. The leaders of countries gathered to attend funeral of Edward, the King of England. Tuchman tries to explain the state of situation during 1910’s by describing hidden intention and state of the leaders and their countries: Germany, France, Russia, and Britain. Why does Tuchman begin the story of the World War I with the funeral of the king of England not the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand?

Most of us think that the cause of breakout of the Great War was the assassination of Ferdinand. However Tuchman finds the real cause of the war from hidden tension and ambition of the countries in Europe. Indeed, for Tuchman, the assassination of Ferdinand was expected result of that tension between European countries.

Back to the story, the death of Edward IIV implied quite many things. He was the brilliant diplomat and succeeded to bring changes in relationship with France and other European countries, and this brilliant diplomatic skill completely encircled Germany and her ambition. We would see in the story, during the funeral, that Wilhelm, the leader of Germany was quite excited because the leader of England, who quite successfully and completely encircled Wilhelm’s country and restrained the ambition of Germany weather it was shown or hidden. Now, with the death of Edward, there would come various changes in Europe relations. After the death of Edward, the leaders of European powers busily and secretly work for their ambition and this is well shown in description of personal state of minds of characters.

Collingwood once said that “the principles and methods of natural science had been lately perfected and were being triumphantly applied to the investigation of the physical world.” (Collingwood, 1946) What I have noticed most in the book “The Guns of August” was that Barbara Tuchman followed what Collingwood said above in narrating the story.

Barbara Tuchman is quite brilliant to describe one’s mind. I could see that she is able to view the situations in relations to characters’ state of minds. As I read the book, I felt like I became the one of the charters in the book. In the book she was able to explain the situation and how the tension had been made in 1910’s by describing personal state of mind of the leaders of European countries. In the first chapter, “A Funeral”, I was able to see many statements by which what the charters in the book feel and conceive were clearly shown. And that exactly fit to the situations. Base on my observation how Tuchman begin and describe the story, I would say that she uses the priori imagination and she through the story, encourages us to be one of the characters and to feel what he/she feels in the story. By using a priori imagination, Tuchman would believe that the readers will be able to have better understanding about the situation and background of the First World War. She has almost perfectly reenacted the setting of that period and described even quite details by using priori imagination base on historical document and her own understanding in relation with historical context of that time.

What is great about Tuchman’s work is that imagination and documentary support (in order word “fact”) are balanced. A common error found in most of historical writing is unbalance of imagination and fact. In historical writing, the balance of fact and imagination (or let’s say narration) is quite important. Historical writing without imagination (I am talking about the imagination based on historical fact) but only historical documents are just “ideal chronicle” which is like recorder of all events ever happened but which cannot give any significance of the events according to Danto. And historical writing with too much imagination is just a fiction. So it is quite important to achieve balance among those.

For that reason, I would want to say that Tuchman’s work is great in terms of historical writing. She has made great narrative based on her imagination with support of historical facts and documents. “The Guns of August” is neither just fiction of a lady nor listing tedious historical facts. Rather it is a great story which is written with well collected historical facts and documents. Therefore, I would consider “The Guns of August” as the complete work of incomplete history.



Sources:

Barbara W. Tuchman (1962). The Guns of August New York: Macmillan

Collingwood, R. G. (1946). The idea of history. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Pp.
205-334 .

Danto, A.C. (1985). Narration and knowledge. Columbia University.

The Guns of August (October 29, 2009). In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia Retrieved 00:17 October 29, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guns_of_August

Monograph #14 William Henry Mcneill

Spanish Flu Strikes the World


“Plague and People (1998)”, the masterpiece of William Mcneill who is the one of the most respected historians nowadays, emphasizes great effect and vital role of disease throughout history. As an epidemic parasite, various diseases have struck the world. Some civilizations which could not cope with diseases declined and were killed off. On the other hand, diseases also have brought great innovation in several countries like Italy where the first quarantine emerged. Regardless of goodness and badness of the diseases’ effects on the world, I would say it is quite obvious that every time severe disease swept civilizations they caused great changes.

In my monograph on Mcneill, I would like to present the one of the most severe diseases that struck the world and that caused great changes in the direction of the world history: Spanish Flu in 1918.

The Spanish Flu was an influenza pandemic that spread to nearly every part of the world. It was caused by an unusually virulent and deadly influenza a virus strain of subtype H1N1. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin of the virus. Most of its victims were healthy young adults, in contrast to most influenza outbreaks which predominantly affect juvenile, elderly, or otherwise weakened patients. (Wikipedia)

It was quite terrible disease. It killed about from 50 to 100 million people worldwide. And as estimated people, one third of the world population at the time became infected. The 1918 flu received its nickname Spanish flu primarily because the flue gained greater attention after it moved to Spain.

The noticeable fact is that it was during the First World War when Spanish flu swept Europe and America. There were many combats between allied power and central power in Europe countries, and as America got involved by German attack on US ship, the war was becoming larger. A large number of army crowded in specific area, and most of soldiers’ immune systems were weakened because of stresses and chemical attacks. Indeed, it was quite great chance for pandemic to strike this large number of people.

In fact, Spanish flu made great impact especially on the First World because of its unique feature that it killed many young adults, healthy victims rather than weak individuals and children. Its main target was soldiers, young adults who were fighting or would fight the war. It is quite interesting fact. Spanish flu seemed to be a pandemic which was prepared for the war because obviously its target was people in the war.

During the War, 100,000 of American soldiers died. In fact, 43,000 of them, around 50% of casualties were killed by Spanish flu. This fact shows us how strong and horrible the Spanish flu was. It killed as many people as the army did. So some researchers even insist that it was Spanish flu that stopped the war. After Spanish flu, there came worldwide flu prevention and it led to invention of penicillin which is preventing flu.

History tells us that every time strong diseases swept the world, there were great impacts at that time. We can easily find the examples of it aside from Spanish flu. Black Death which swept European countries during 14th century killed One-Third of Europe population only for 4 years. As a result of Black Death the feudalism, a political and social system which was strongly prevalent at the time was destroyed. Likewise, smallpox, yellow fever, and cholera which were extremely epidemic caused great changes in History.

Perhaps, History has been being led by plagues that are something we, human beings cannot control. Our history is giving various evidences on it.


Sources:

McNeill, W.H. (1998). Plagues and peoples. New York: Anchor Books.

Spanish Flu (October 5, 2009). In Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia Retrieved 18:52 October 5, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_flu

Spanish Flu (2009) Retrieved from http://flu.emedtv.com/spanish-flu/spanish-flu.html