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The Word and the Sword
How Techniques of Information and Violence
Leonard Dudley (Author)
9781557862464, Wiley
Hardback, published 14 November 1991
372 pages
25 x 20 x 1.5 cm, 0.737 kg
How military and information innovations affect social transformation This book explores how major social transformations are related to four categories of information innovation as well as four categories of military evolution. In The Word and the Sword, the author outlines the effects generated by methods of presenting information, such as writing, printing, and mass media. He also discusses four ways in which applications of violence, such as artillery and steam transport, have created societal change.
Editor's Preface vii Preface xi Acknowledgments xii Introduction 1 Patterns of the Past 4 The Limits to State Power 7 Eight Key Innovations 9 Technological Determinism? 12 1 Ziggurats in the Sand 15 The Two Rivers 19 The Development of Writing 23 The Origin of Bureaucracy 28 The First Complex Societies 34 Writing and the Emergence of Civil 41 2 The Age of Gilgamesh 47 Of Walls and Warfare 50 Military Conquest and Con 53 From City-state to Empire 60 Private Property and Pace Rule 67 Frontier Games 71 3 The Shattered Mirror 77 The Roman State at the Height of its Power 80 Military Problems of the Later Roman Empire 84 Changes in the Internal and External Margins 87 Military and Economic Explanations of Rome's Failure 90 Technology and the Fall of Rome 96 4 Hexagon Dynamics 101 The Size and Shape of the Medieval State 104 Developments in Metallurgy and Arms 112 The Turning Point for France 118 The Royal Fiscal Machine 123 The Shell of the Nation State 131 5 The Eclipse of the Caravans 139 The Beginning of the Modern Age 142 The Communications Bottleneck 148 The Reformation and Literacy 152 The Challenge to Monarchic Rule 158 The Internal Margin of the Dutch State 164 The United Provinces as Nation State 172 6 Sonderweg or Railway? 181 The Emergence of a Superpower 183 Liberalism and Nationalism 195 The Railway 197 Toward Unification 203 The German Nation State 212 Resources to Burn 215 7 The Petrograd Paradox 221 The First Permanent Revolution 224 The Instruments of Mass Control 234 The Leninist Revolution 242 The Role of the Communist Party 250 The Paradox Explained 262 8 The Atomization of America 269 The High-water Mark 272 Pressure on the Border 278 Toward an Atomistic 286 The Rising Sun 294 A Unique Occurrence 304 Conclusion 311 Three Classes of Events 315 The Direction of Causality 319 A Pattern of History 321 The Pattern Explained 323 Where Are We Going? 326 Bibliography 329 Suggested Reading 341 General Index 345 Name Index 354
Subject Areas: History [HB]
