Will our past imitate our future?
"The purpose of this book is threefold: to explain what makes civilization civilization what it is; to show what we are in danger of losing in the event of collapse, and to point the way toward renewal."
There is a consensus in the West that something is wrong. Many people have the uneasy feeling that the liberal democratic order is in danger, and that civilization itself hangs in the balance. This feeling could be dismissed as alarmism, but the present moment of pandemic, political instability, and rioting is a startling reminder of the fragility of civilization everywhere. And we should never forget that empires and societies have collapsed many times before.
But history shows that human civilization also has extraordinary powers of recuperation, writes Michael R.J. Bonner in this bracing tour de force. Drawing on such examples as the revival of Europe after the collapse of the Roman Empire, and the ebb and flow of civilization in China despite repeated foreign conquest, he shows how humankind's quest for clarity, order, and beauty—the crucial elements of civilization—does not necessarily succeed through innovation or a futuristic orientation, but by thoughtful examination and imitation of past experience.

Bonner, Michael R.J.

The Sutherland House Inc.

Canada - English Language, Canada

Toronto, 2023

FR, 2023

"Human history is largely a record of failure. Economic strife, inflation, military overstretch, foreign warfare, domestic unrest, famine, and disease have always conspired against us and usually defeated us. More often than not, we have to struggle through hard times, enduring a substantial reduction in living standards and state capacity, or the total collapse of institutions. At the end of the twentieth century, people scoffed at such ideas. In the 1990s, nothing seemed quite so absurd as collapse —unless, of course, you were living in China, where collapse was widely feared, or in Russia, Rwanda, and the former Yugoslavia where it actually happened. Yet, even so, the threat of world war and nuclear annihilation suddenly seemed remote after the end of the Cold War, and advanced thinkers announced a new era of steady progress everywhere. The less less-terrifying prospect of decline seemed simply implausible. The purpose of this book is threefold: to explain what makes civilization what it is,; to show what we are in danger of losing in the event of collapse, and to point the way toward renewal."-- Provided by publisher

2023-06-28