Suchergebnisse

Preserved Smith (1880–1941), a professor in the history department of Cornell University, owed his unusual first name to Puritan ancestors who could be traced back to the seventeenth century. His great interest was in the Protestant reformation, and its wide-ranging political and cultural effects in Europe and America. An obituary remarks that his writings 'reveal a remarkable breadth of knowledge and interest and a consistent devotion to high standards of scholarly integrity'. This two-volume work of 1930–4, discussing 'modern culture' from 1543 to 1776, displays these qualities in abundance. Volume 1, after an introductory chapter, considers the state of the sciences in the sixteenth century, then the humanities and the social and political context of law, morality and art. The emphasis on the importance of science as a driver of change makes this a remarkable and readable overview of the emergence of modern society

The continuous increase in human energy production per caput is accompanied by an increase in the world population. The work considers the demographic history of civilization as a function of the growing production and use of the energy by mankind. The evolution in the «energy-man» system took place relatively safely for the biosphere and a man up to the value of the per caput energy consumption of 11,000 kW*h/year*person that was achieved by civilization in 1950. Modern high per caput energy consumption of civilization is achieved at the cost of the loss of the environment-forming functioning by the biosphere and at the cost of the loss of the psychophysical health of a person. We can see the prospects for development of civilization through analysis of the energy-demographic history of mankind over the past 200 years. The features of fertility and mortality in the world are considered depending on the per caput energy consumption with a forecast for the future. Two limits to the growth of global energy production were formulated in terms of preventing harm to humans. Corresponding analytical dependencies are proposed. To prevent an ecological and demographic catastrophe and ensure transition of civilization to sustainable development, it is proposed to reduce the world energy production to 140*1012 kW*h/year with a decrease in per caput energy consumption to a relatively safe level of 18,000 kW*h/year*person, which existed in society in 1970. After this «step back» civilization will enter a state of relatively safe existence.

Civilization explores how Scottish Enlightenment theories played out in Canadian imaginaries and institutions: the state and society; the liberal and the conservative. E.A. Heaman's case study identifies crucial spaces and moments of conceptual reversal to consider what was unique and what was broadly representative in Canadian civilization.

Cover -- Half Title -- Series Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Contents -- List of Tables and Figures -- Introduction -- 1 The Problem of too Much History -- Modern Greek Nationalism: Competing Visions -- The Dream of Byzantium -- The Western Vision -- Orthodox Christianity -- Language and Culture -- Creating a National Identity -- The Consequences of Success -- Contemporary Problems of Nationalism and National Unity -- The Modern and Traditional Tensions Continued -- 2 Modern Greek History: From One Revolution to Another -- The Struggle for Independence -- The Great Powers and the Establishment of the Bavarian Monarchy -- A New King, a New Constitution -- The "Revolution" of 1909 and the Ascent of Venizelos -- Internal Division and Political Instability -- The Anatolian Disaster and Its Consequences -- Political Instability and Economic Disaster -- Political Stalemate and the Metaxas Dictatorship -- 3 World War II and After -- The Occupation and Resistance -- Liberation and Confrontation -- The Civil War -- The New Political Context -- Political Stability and Economic Growth -- The Center Union: Victory and Defeat -- Military Dictatorship -- 4 The International Factor -- The Tradition of Great Power Patronage -- Greece and the Great Powers in the Nineteenth Century -- The Great Powers and Greek Territorial Gains and Losses -- The United States as Patron -- Greek Foreign Policy Objectives -- The European Union as Patron -- Greek-Turkish Relations -- The Problem with Macedonia -- Relations with Albania -- Greek Foreign Policy and the Diaspora -- Greece and the International Economic System -- The International Role of Greece -- 5 Society and Politics -- The Patron-Client System -- Greek Self-Esteem: Philotimo -- Clientelism and Social Change -- Refugees -- The Labor Movement -- Greek Public Enterprise and the Capitalist System.

The prestige of the Enlightenment has declined in recent years. Many consider its thinking abstract, its art and poetry uninspiring, and the assertion that it introduced a new age of freedom and progress after centuries of darkness and superstition presumptuous. In this book, an eminent scholar of modern culture shows that the Enlightenment was a more complex phenomenon than most of its detractors and advocates assume. It includes rationalist as well as antirationalist tendencies, a critique of traditional morality and religion as well as an attempt to establish them on new foundations, even the beginning of a moral renewal and a spiritual revival.The Enlightenment's critique of tradition was a necessary consequence of the fundamental modern principle that we humans are solely responsible for the course of history. Hence we can accept no belief, no authority, no institutions that are not in some way justified. This foundation, for better or for worse, determined the course of the following centuries. Despite contemporary reactions against it, the Enlightenment continues to shape our own time and still distinguishes Western culture from any other