Patterns in Time [antikvár]

PREFACE Ten people reporting any event, the sinking of the Lusitania or the Cuban Revolution, for example, will give ten different accounts of what happened, and why. Each has his own physical, mental, and emotional point of view. Each makes his own selection of facts for emphasis. Each interprets the facts in the light of his own knowledge, experience, and predilection. So it is with any account of man's history, particularly with one that must be compressed into 400 pages. The selection, emphasis, and interpretation presented in this book are the product of many hours and months of co-operative thinking, discussion, and writing. While the authors recognize that a history of man based mainly on Western Europe is not a world history, they have made no attempt to avoid a strong emphasis on the development of Western civilization, as an examination of the table of contents will confirm. On the other hand, they have tried to avoid creating the impression that events in the rest of the world have been important only when they have had a bearing on the main stream of Western civilization. The approach to other areas of the world in the latter part of the book, although inevitably much too brief, is intended to help the student to realize that the history of these areas has in itself an importance and a value which until recently the Western world has underestimated. This history has not yet received the same detailed and concentrated study as that of the Western world, although it constitutes the story of approximately three-quarters of the people living today. Recent studies indicate widespread misunderstanding of