A history of power from the beginning to A.D. 1760

Abstract

Preface 1. Societies as organized power networks 2. The end of general social evolution: how prehistoric peoples evaded power 3. The emergence of stratification, states, and multi-power-actor civilisation in Mesopotamia 4. A comparative analysis of the emergence of stratification, states, and multi-power-actor civilisations 5. The first empires of domination: the dialectics of compulsory cooperation 6. 'Indo-Europeans' and iron: expanding, diversified power networks 7. Phoenicians and Greeks: decentralized multi-power-actor civilisations 8. Revitalized empires of domination: Assyria and Persia 9. The Roman territorial empire 10. Ideology transcendent: the Christian ecumene 11. A comparative excursus into the world religions: Confucianism, Islam, and (especially) Hindu caste 12. The European dynamic: I. The intensive phase, A. D. 800-1155 13. The European dynamics: II. The rise of coordinating states, 1155-1477 14. The European dynamic: III. International capitalism and organic national states, 1477-1760 15. European conclusions: explaining European dynamism - capitalism, Christendom, and states 16. Patterns of world-historical development in agrarian societies Index.