Roger Osborne - Civilization: A New History of the Western World

ROGER OSBOURNE

Civilization

A New History of the Western World

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Epub ISBN 9781446442838

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Published by Vintage 2007

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Copyright Roger Osborne 2006

Roger Osborne has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

First published in Great Britain in 2006 by Jonathan Cape

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ISBN 9780099526063

Prehistory and Illiterate Societies

Change and Custom in Classical Greece

Plato, Aristotle and the Rational Mind

Rome and the Barbarians

From Rebel Sect to Universal Faith

The Establishment of Western Christendom

The Medieval Town and Communal Life

Wealth, Power and Innovation in the Italian Renaissance

The European Reformation as a New Beginning

The Rise of the Military State

Colonization and Slavery

Theory and Practice in Making Society

Politics and Reason in France and America

British Dominance and the Ideology of Freedom

The Making of Modern America

Technology, Ideology, Apocalypse

Depression, Extremism and Genocide in Europe, America and Asia

From Social Cohesion to Global Marketplace

About the Author

Roger Osbornes previous books include The Floating Egg: Episodes in the Making of Geology, The Deprat Affair: Ambition, Revenge and Deceit in French Indo-China and The Dreamer of the Calle San Salvador: Visions of Sedition and Sacrilege in Sixteenth Century Spain. He lives in Scarborough.

Urgent, compelling, breathtaking in scope, Osbornes Civilization confronts the vital question of our time.

John Carey

It is a bold adventurer who proposes to survey the history of the Western civilization in a mere 500 pages, and not only to say something fresh about many aspects of it, but to do so in a spirit of perceptive scepticism that refuses to go along with standard views and reflex valuations. Roger Osborne offers himself this challenge and meets it brilliantly.

A.C. Grayling, Independent on Sunday

Civilization is an immensely important book and an exhilarating read. It deserves the widest audience.

Literary Review

Roger Osbornes absorbing blockbuster is an admirable achievement: a coherent narrative that gallops from the painting of the Lascaux buffalo to the cloning of Dolly the Sheep, from the Beaker people to the McDonalds people, in fewer than 500 crisply written pages.

Boyd Tonkin, Independent

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Stone circle at Avebury, Wiltshire, c. 1800 BC (The Ancient Art and Architecture Collection).

The standing stones of Callanish, Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides (The Ancient Art and Architecture Collection).

Silbury Hill, Wiltshire (The Ancient Art and Architecture Collection).

The Greek Temple of Ceres, Paestum, Italy, sixth century BC (Bridgeman Art Library).

The Pantheon and the Egyptian Obelisk in Rome, second century AD (Alinari/Bridgeman Art Gallery).

West Front portals of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Reims, begun in 1231 and completed in 1430 (Bridgeman Art Library).

The Bishops Eye, Lincoln Cathedral, fourteenth century (Bridgeman Art Library).

The Basilica of St Denis, Paris: view of the columns and vaulting in the ambulatory (Peter Willi/Bridgeman Art Library).

Rock painting showing a horse and a cow, c. 17000 BC , caves of Lascaux, Dordogne, France (Bridgeman Art Library).

Prehistoric rock paintings of horses in the Black Room, Grotte de Niaux, Ariege, Midi-Pyrenees, France (Index/Bridgeman Art Library).

The battle of Lapiths and Centaurs, from the south side of the Parthenon, 44732 BC (British Museum/Bridgeman Art Library).

The Book of Kells: MS 58 fol. 104r, page of majuscule script with zoomorphic initials, by Scribe D, Irish (vellum), no date ( The Board of Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland/Bridgean Art Library).

Viking animal head carving, from a sledge found with the Oseberg ship, ninth century (Viking Ship Museum, Oslo/Bridgeman Art Library).

Detail from the faade of San Pietro, depicting scenes from Le Roman de Lenart, twelfth century, Spoleto, Umbria, Italy (Bridgeman Art Library).

Palazzo Ducale, Piazza San Marco, Venice, begun c. 1340 (Giraudon/Bridgeman Art Library).

The main square at Cest Budejovice, Bohemia (Martin Jones/www.arcaid.co.uk).

Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, begun in 1489 by Benedetto da Maiano and continued by Cronaca (Guido Mannucci/Bridgeman Art Library).

Palazzo Cattedrale di San Calisto, Rome (Bridgeman Art Library).

Courtyard of the Palazzo Pitti, Florence, fifteenth century (Alinari/Bridgeman Art Library).

Trinity Episcopal Church at Broadway and Wall Street, New York (Leonard McCombe/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images).

Bronze statue of Poseidon, c. 460450 BC (National Archaeological Museum, Athens/Bridgeman Art Library).

Venus de Milo, Hellenistic period, c. 100 BC (Louvre, Paris/Peter Willi/Bridgeman Art Library).

Discobulus, marble copy of a bronze originial, after Myron (fl. c. 450 BC ) (Vatican Museum and Galleries/Alinari/Bridgeman Art Library).

Bust of Pericles, fifth century BC (Vatican Museum and Galleries/Alinari/Bridgeman Art Library).

Emperor Augustus holding a sceptre and thunderbolt, Herculaneum, first century AD (