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82nd out of 152 books
—
41 voters
Civilizations: Culture, Ambition, and the Transformation of Nature
Erudite, wide-ranging, a work of dazzling scholarship written with extraordinary flair, Civilizations redefines the subject that has fascinated historians from Thucydides to Gibbon to Spengler to Fernand Braudel: the nature of civilization. To the author, Oxford historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto, a society's relationship to climate, geography, and ecology are paramount in...more
Paperback, 560 pages
Published
June 4th 2002
by Free Press
(first published October 28th 2000)
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The eloquent historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto has clearly meant this book to be a counter-proposal to the geographic determinism espoused by scholars such as Jared Diamond. And for the most part he does an admirable job of convincing the reader that ‘civilization’, as defined by him, is a truly random and almost inevitable accretion wherever human societies develop. Even though he agrees that geography has always been a vital factor in any civilization’s progress, thus providing ammunition for...more
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A superb and enlightening book. The author contrasts and compares different cultures and civilisations, not by their time period, religion or other more conventional groupings, but rather by the type of environment that they inhabited - e.g. plateau, tropical rainforest etc. The book was a real eye-opener for me in terms of learning about societies that I hadn't heard of before and in changing the way that I think about how societies develop and succeed. The book is broadly of the same genre as...more
The subtitle for Felipe Fernandez-Armesto's amazing book references culture, ambition and nature. These ideas are all central to his history of civilizations, but as he states near the end of the book it is a "book of places". That is an overriding theme that is underscored by the many diverse civilizations that he discusses. Thus the book is a history of civilizations, not one civilization; and it is also about the power and ambition of mankind that he uses to tame geography, ecology, climate a...more
Not the best or most comprehensive history of civilizations out there, but definitely a unique one. Felipe Fernandez-Armesto believes that a society (or alternately, a culture) becomes a civilization when it adapts its environment not just to meet its vital needs, but to allow it to realize its socio-cultural aspirations. It is his belief that environment informs culture, and that the physical and climactic surroundings of a people are the primary factors in determining what cultures and societi...more
This book is interesting and fun, but it very assiduously avoids making any points explicitly - the author frames it as a fun intellectual adventure he undertook without any real agenda, and this is felt throughout. So while there are takeaway points - history is complex and much of what you know about it is burdened with value judgments that impair deduction from it; the term civilization should be defined on a spectrum, revealing many examples with broadly diverse histories; environment shapes...more
Nov 28, 2009
Neal Shah
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
history,
non-fiction
A fascinating book based on a simple thesis: "civilization" should be seen as a cultural (including technological) adaptation to a society's natural environment. This definition broadens the term considerably, allowing Fernandez-Armesto to explore a much wider range of societies than the "high cultures" normally found in these kinds of general histories. It makes it all the more exciting when he presents the more familiar civilizations in this context, as it simultaneously drives home the sophis...more
Erudite, wide-ranging, a work of dazzling scholarship written with extraordinary flair, Civilizations redefines the subject that has fascinated historians from Thucydides to Gibbon to Spengler to Fernand Braudel: the nature of civilization. To the author, Oxford historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto, a society's relationship to climate, geography, and ecology are paramount in determining its degree of success. "Unlike previous attempts to write the comparative history of civilizations," he writes,...more
I found this book both captivating and difficult -- the author is a skilled writer and wonderfully evocative with his description, emotional language, and sense of placing everything in it's context. However, one wonders if some of his assertions are perhaps solely his own rather than verfiable as "fact." The overall premise of the book is fascinating in my opinion -- that is that civilization is a continuum measuring man's relative bending of nature to his needs (or conversely bending himself t...more
I really enjoyed Fernandez-Armesto's fresh look at "civilizations" as an antidote to the eurocentric view that is still taught in school. (Full disclosure: I've taught it! That's one reason I was interested in this book in the first place.)
The only disappointment was the ending, in that the book was published in 2001, so describes the future of civilizations in a pre-9-11 world.
The only disappointment was the ending, in that the book was published in 2001, so describes the future of civilizations in a pre-9-11 world.
Masterful work by the brilliant British historian that groups various civilizations not by time period or continent by the type of environment in which they formed. Not quite "geography is destiny," but close. F-A regards "civilization" precisely as humanity's attempts to control the environment, and he's very much a "two cheers for civilization" sort: obviously in love with culture and in awe of achievements like transoceanic sailing passages, but pretty clear-eyed about the destruction humanit...more
An historian's look at the dialectic of environment and civilization. Also a good antidote to Jared Diamond's environmental determinism. Fernandez-Armesto is an excellent writer, and though this is a dense, long book, his style makes reading a joy. It is rich in information and detail that exposes new ideas and new ways of looking at world history. Most of his other books (most recently "Pathfinders") are excellent as well. If you want to know who you are and the where and why you came to be, th...more
A fun read. Looking at civilizations from the point of view of the environments in which they exist is a pleasantly different perspective from the usual chronological and hierarchical progression. And the fact that the book is made up of a series of anecdotes makes it very pleasant to read.
(seen in Aardvark Books in SF, looks interesting)
It is a good book to know well the phase of human civilization in the world history.
A good book. I enjoyed and was informed a great deal by this text.
May 21, 2013
Yasmin
marked it as to-read
May 21, 2013
Robin
marked it as to-read
May 12, 2013
Caleigh
marked it as to-read
May 04, 2013
Phil Howard
marked it as to-read
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Born in 1950, Felipe Fernández-Armesto was raised in London by his Spanish born father and British born mother both active journalists. As a historian, he has written numerous books on a variety of subject from American History to the Spanish Armada. He currently serves as the Principe de Asturias Chair in Spanish Culture and Civilization at Tufts University and Professor of Global Environmental H...more
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