---
product_id: 21517859
title: "The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community; with a Retrospective Essay"
brand: "william h. mcneillbela petheo"
price: "29335 Ft"
currency: HUF
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 9
url: https://www.desertcart.hu/products/21517859-the-rise-of-the-west-a-history-of-the-human
store_origin: HU
region: Hungary
---

# The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community; with a Retrospective Essay

**Brand:** william h. mcneillbela petheo
**Price:** 29335 Ft
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community; with a Retrospective Essay by william h. mcneillbela petheo
- **How much does it cost?** 29335 Ft with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.hu](https://www.desertcart.hu/products/21517859-the-rise-of-the-west-a-history-of-the-human)

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## Description

The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community; with a Retrospective Essay

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    I wish I had learned history this way! A crosswalk through time rather than units of "world civ."
  

*by C***F on Reviewed in the United States on August 8, 2016*

This is a wonderful telling of the human story from cave man days to the modern era, condensed to 800 pages. The theme of the writer, William H. McNeill, is how societies advance through cross-cultural challenge and exchange. This theme unifies the discussion of various empires and epochs, because each history is explored in relationship to the larger world. Despite the broad brush strokes, McNeill still provides fascinating detail as he touches down on particular times and places. This detail engages the reader and invites further reading in areas of special interest, as well as reflection and discussion respecting contemporary issues.Here is an example:"Within surprisingly few decades, the most active center of innovative activity shifted from China to the Atlantic face of Europe. Before 1500, capitalists achieved remarkable autonomy within the walls of a few Italian and north European city-states; and even after that political framework decayed, urban sovereignties in Europe continued to give merchants and bankers almost unhampered scope or expansion of market activity, whereas in China, and also in most of the Moslim world, regimes unsympathetic to private capitalist accumulation prevailed. In the name of good government, Asian rulers effectively checked the rise of large-scale entrepreneurship by confiscatory taxation on the one hand, and by regulation of prices in the interest of consumers on the other. This left large-scale commercial enterprise, and presently also mining and plantation agriculture, more and more to the Europeans. Consequently, the rise of the West to its world hegemony of recent centuries got underway." (p.xxviii)McNeill emphasizes the ingenuity and social progress that follows the release of peasant classes from serfdom:"Thus, for example, pikemen recruited from the towns of northern Italy and later from the villages of Switzerland challenged the military supremacy of aristocratic knights from the twelfth century onward, while in the fourteenth century, the cream of French chivalry could not prevail against English bowmen, recruited originally from the poverty-stricken Welsh marchlands. As for politics, such representative institutions as the English Parliament, the French Estates-General, and the Ecumenical Councils of the Church, all brought varied social groups into the highest arenas of the political process."The result was to mobilize greater human resources within European society than was possible within the more rigidly hierarchical societies of the other civilized lands. The Greek democratic polis of the classical age had shown for a brief period the potentialities of a small community of free men and citizens. Western Europe was neither so free nor so intensely creative; yet there, too, we can perhaps detect the stimulating effect of circumstances that called forth conflicting energies of a larger proportion of the total population than could ever find expression in a society dominated by just a few individuals of comparatively homogeneous, though much more refined, outlook." (p.558-559)McNeill's walk through human history provides a solid framework for the study of history, and a clearer view of our own times. I definitely recommend it, especially for young adults. They are the heirs of this world; and they will write the history of the next century.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    Book in good condition; as advertised.
  

*by P***E on Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2022*

Fine book.  Wish I had ordered a hardbound edition.  Worth studying.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5.0 out of 5 stars







  
  
    50 years later, still the best.
  

*by W***R on Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2013*

The finest work, to my knowledge, exploring the concepts of cultural interaction.  Its application to today can best be expressed by a brief quote from the work:  "…Mercantile and artisan enterprise should probably not be expected to flourish in communities dominated by rentiers and office holders, if only because successful traders or other economic entrepreneurs are prone to withdraw from risky and troublesome ventures and use their funds to buy an office the government or to invest in sound rent-producing properties.  In extreme cases, when fiscality becomes an unchecked principle of administration, speculative capital is likely to find far richer rewards through the purchase of governmental office than in any economically productive venture.  Yet such offices are lucrative only because they permit their holders to ambush the money and goods of the public at large.  Government becomes, in effect, a great siphon concentrating wealth in the hands of a small group of insiders, whose cultured luxury may disguise the rapacity of the regime which sustains them.  Taxation easily becomes confiscation, and tax gatherers soon begin to resemble marauding robbers.  Economic devolution and a radical retrogression of trade and industry may be the unintended result.  To what extent such a parasitic cycle came into operation in Byzantium after 1000 AD cannot be said.  It is clear, however, that Italians came to dominate the trade first of the Aegean and then the Black Sea during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. "

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*Product available on Desertcart Hungary*
*Store origin: HU*
*Last updated: 2026-01-31*