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1st out of 12 books
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8 voters
Thousand Years of Nonlinear History
Following in the wake of his groundbreaking War in the Age of Intelligent Machines, Manuel De Landa presents a radical synthesis of historical development over the last one thousand years. More than a simple expository history, A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History sketches the outlines of a renewed materialist philosophy of history in the tradition of Fernand Braudel, Gil...more
Paperback, 333 pages
Published
September 11th 2000
by MIT Press (MA)
(first published December 1st 1997)
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Mescaline does something to your sense of scale. You can see your mental view expand from planets to solar systems to galaxies, and find it recapitulate itself in the order of the molecules stitching together the cells in your body. You can see the emergent relationships of cells from the perspective of cultural anthropology, or look for the behavior of cultures in the mathematical expression of a whirlpool. If you understand this, then it is easiest to simply say that this book is history on me...more
Following in the wake of his groundbreaking War in the Age of Intelligent Machines, Manuel De Landa presents a radical synthesis of historical development over the last one thousand years. More than a simple expository history, A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History sketches the outlines of a renewed materialist philosophy of history in the tradition of Fernand Braudel, Gilles Deleuze, and Felix Guattari, while also engaging the critical new understanding of material processes derived from the sc...more
As a different perspective on history, it's fascinating and well worth reading. It doesn't always successfully avoid a teleological perspective and sometimes it feels like "description of history. this happened because nonlinear stuff" without a real connection but it does a pretty good job considering. It works pretty great as a history in itself, too. The conclusion doesn't really explain itself too great, which is the one real annoyance I have. I have a few problems with the theory from a Mar...more
Typically the contemporary western world is specialized in a way that organizes various professions and institutions into vertical categories; think of them as silos. So, even though there is alot of similarity between say, the nutrition acquisition network of bees and the geographic routes taken by drug addicts when they need a fix -- the two disciplines of study never meet. This book, very provocatively written, connects many dots that typically remain dispersed. Highly recommended to thos tha...more
My edition was published by Zone Books which seems to believe that games with layout and fonts are fun. They start their chapters with something like 18pt and then shrink it with each turning page until things get normal again. It’s cute on chapters 1 and 2. Less so by chapter 5. And by the time chapter 9 on Linguistic History is rolling around, downright annoying. I wanted to rip out all the 18pt pages and shove them so far up the large intestine of the layout designer that he or she would have...more
In some ways this book is a gloss on Deleuze and Guattari's "A Thousand Plateaus." The author also relies heavily on Fernand Braudel, and Foucault (although "Discipline and Punish" is the only work he cites). (There was one mention of Wallerstein that was rather dismissive, although he did seem to use his concept of the refeudalization of Eastern Europe in the early modern period). So the book was a good read for me as I'm familiar with much of the above material.
That being said, you don't have...more
That being said, you don't have...more
Apr 26, 2013
Jennifer Peeler
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommended to Jennifer by:
Sara Glee Queen
Shelves:
history,
systems-thinking
A Thousand Years of NonLinear History is a must read for anyone remotely interested in cylical or systems thinking. To approach the history of mankind with the same model as a scientists approaches a thermodynamics problem could be one of the most ingenious ideas I've read to date. De Landa walks you (through myriads of systems storytelling) into the philosophical world of Lavas and Magmas, Flesh and Genes, and Memes and Norms on a quest, not for optimum efficiency or evolutionary fitness, but f...more
I fawn over Gilles Deleuze the way a 12 year old girl fawns over the Jonas Brothers. And so does DeLanda. DeLanda engages a synthesis I've long been seeking, which is to say a sensible Deleuzean materialism informed by evolutionary theory. Which, as a double major in English literature and environmental science, makes a whole lot of sense to me. I wish, though, that DeLanda had employed more material evidence beyond highly conceptual genealogies.
It is not just a book for Philosophy 101. In paraphrasing the arguments of Deleuze, Guattari, Foucault and gang, it puts forth their difficult concepts in less difficult terms. I'm not saying that the book will be an easy read (it is not!) but it does away with the assumption that you have a working knowledge of classical and cartesian philosophy.
De Landa, in tracing the history of society, presents us with his interpretations of the Deluzian universe and provides us with a platform and basic un...more
De Landa, in tracing the history of society, presents us with his interpretations of the Deluzian universe and provides us with a platform and basic un...more
Anyone who can render Deleuze and Gauttari comprehensible is worth 4 stars, but this book was a laborious read. The point of the book is made in the finer details of human history, and I appreciate that, but this is 500 straight pages of fine detail. It's just overwhelming (and therefore underwhelming at the same time).
i will someday read the last chapter, though it will take me a while before i can groove on "aggregation," "sorting," and "stratification" as concepts for big organizing again. economics chapter was most compelling--as if i needed it, gives me another way to be captivated by 'materialist history.'
In A Thousand Years of Nonlinear History, Manuel De Landa examines the history of the past thousand years, 1000 A.D. to 2000 A.D., with a definite slant towards a Eurocentric point of view. De Landa also uses a chronological linear time flow throughout the text. As he states in the introduction, he did not wish to superficially apply non-linearity. Instead he examines the thousand years of history with three different concerns: geological history, biological history, and linguistic history.
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I got little out of this the first time through. Subsequent readings in math, physics and architecture helped loosen up the numerous and deeply entrenched prejudices which prevented me from seeing this a responsibly and oddly joyous exposition of human populations' capacity for auto-assemblage.
a practical application of Deleuze & Guattari, think "The Geology of Morals" chapter of ATP except a whole book. My only complaint would be DeLanda's reliance on other authors and the numerous quotations (feels really weird reading ATP quotes...some of them I can tell he's going to use before they even come up) but in the end that's just because he's summarizing a massive amount of research that I wouldn't bother to read otherwise. The conclusion was excellent, and also owed the most to D&G,...more
This book is more accessible than people would think given the title and heady topic. I urge everyone interested in history, culture, politics, and philosophy to give it a read -- I can honestly say this book completely changed my outlook on the world.
a look at history through theme and method rather than chronological cause-and-effect.
more interesting for the way it's organized than the histories it's documenting, though those are sometimes fascinating too.
delanda shows the links connecting biological, geological, economic, and linguistic histories, explaining immigration via pathology (i.e. the way microbes come in and out of the body to effect disease), social class dynamics/formation via rock stratification, and pidgin histories by way o...more
more interesting for the way it's organized than the histories it's documenting, though those are sometimes fascinating too.
delanda shows the links connecting biological, geological, economic, and linguistic histories, explaining immigration via pathology (i.e. the way microbes come in and out of the body to effect disease), social class dynamics/formation via rock stratification, and pidgin histories by way o...more
Hopefully the grad. program I am in will get this guy to speak on campus. He is my favorite Deleuzian philosopher around! So interesting, and untied to any dogmatic theories about reality, history, and subjectivity.
A little dated now, but liked his central metaphor a lot, particularly with reference to biology and linguistics (as opposed to economics)
Brilliant in parts, this attempt to write a deleuzian history stands up very well.
this book was incredible, an alternate exploration of human phenomena through the lens of non-linear dynamics. it actually got me interested in reading deleuze—which is a feat in itself—and provided some thought experiments for non-linear poetics. rad.
This is my favorite book. It's a little dry at points, but it has to be. Its rhetoric has an intensity rivaled,in my experience, only by impassioned religious sermons - but its tone is crystal clear logic. If someone gave me $1,000 right now to spend only on books, The bibliography of this book would be my catalog for the shopping spree.
Anyone interested in ideas or thought should definitely give this book a shot.
Anyone interested in ideas or thought that spurns this book should be shot.
Anyone interested in ideas or thought should definitely give this book a shot.
Anyone interested in ideas or thought that spurns this book should be shot.
awesome history. each section is interesting as heck. if nothing else, even if it were not of philosophic worth or whatever, it would still be a great read and well-told review of different ideas. the book's contents are examples of the concepts in D&G's "Geology of Morals" chapter in A Thousand Plateaus. when i first read that d&G chapter it was like reading an English translation of an alien encyclopedia entry on advanced math but after de Landa the chapter makes a little more sense.
Mar 07, 2011
Chris
added it
Is De Landa one of those PoMo intellectuals whom Sokal takes to task for dressing in logorrheic robes of difficult language what is, at heart, meaningless gibberish? I don't know, but the premise of this book is fascinating and its bright, rainbow design keeps calling to me from over in the corner where it sits flirting atop an under-read pile of modern philosophy.
I am not certain I completely understood it, but I can say that it is creative, unique, and potentially groundbreaking.
I will read it again.
I will read it again.
I know books like this are probably out of style, but this one gives a great description of the fluidity of language development in Western Europe and other topics. It's much more clearly written than the books that influenced it- mainly A Thousand Plateaus.
this book attempts to see the world as the complex and inter-related mess that it is, and in doing so crosses enough boundaries to make your head spin, but in that crazy ecstatic whirling dervish type way that only leaves me wanting to read more.
Nov 05, 2008
Nick Black
marked it as to-read
Amazon 2008-11-05. That cover seems engineered to make one's eyes bleed; it's the ugliest thing since Turkmenistan's flag (it is not, incidently, as ugly as the flag of the Marshall Islands).
Jul 13, 2008
Chris
added it
Thinking of humans as dynamic nonlinear systems and the forces of nature as incredible computational machines.
Everything is a single matter/energy undergoing processes of organization and dissipation. What else is new?
admittedly i only got through a few chapters, though after intensive science i think i'll go after it again
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