Plough, Sword, and Book: The Structure of Human History

by Ernest Gellner

Book Overview

"Philosophical anthropology on the grandest scale. . . .Gellner has produced a sharp challenge to his colleagues and a thrilling book for the non-specialist. Deductive history on this scale cannot be proved right or wrong, but this is Gellner writing, incisive, iconoclastic, witty and expert. His scenario compels our attention."--Adam Kuper, New Statesman

"A thoughtful and lively meditation upon probably the greatest transformation in...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226287025
• ISBN13: 9780226287027
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Advanced theories of history

Plough, sword and book - sounds like the title of another easily digested history of humanity, but don't be mistaken. Ernest Gellner never wrote a book just to restate the familiar and obvious. His style is intellectually challenging and not intended for leisurely reading. This book presents a theory of history utilizing mostly sociological tools, but also with many elements from the history of philosophy. Gellner finds unique perspectives by combining material from different fields in his analysis, but quite a bit of background knowledge is assumed. It seems to me that the reader should have some familiarity at least with the classic works of sociology (Durkheim, Weber) and/or the history of philosophy (Plato, Descartes, Kant). This book is of course not a detailed study of any of those classics, but much of the text proceeds by discussing platonic, cartesian and weberian ways of thought on an abstract level, so you do need to have some understanding of the associated terminology before you start reading this book. However, while abstractions can be useful for seeing the big picture, in this book they are sometimes simply confusing. Some historical exemplification in between the theorizing would have been very helpful. Too many times Gellner flies so high in his abstractions that the reader has no chance of connecting his ideas to any real event or movement in world history. This is the case especially for his analysis of Cognition, where the argument is framed with strange phrases like "Platonism is the supreme expression of agro-literate man" (p.118). It is actually difficult to understand what Gellner means by "Platonism" in this context since his usage is unconventional and historical examples are not offered. In my opinion, the analysis of the other main topics of the book (Coercion and Production) stands on a firmer basis than the theory about Cognition. Towards the end of the book some of the material is actually a bit outdated since Gellner discusses the contemporary "marxist state" and the like (the book was written in 1988). So this book has some minor flaws, but the great majority of it is still very interesting and useful for people who want to study our contemporary world from a critical and historical perspective. The breadth of material is very impressive, ranging from the dynamics of agrarian societies to problems of modern democracy and colonial legacies. And for such a short book, it's important that Gellner manages (most of the time) to produce well-structured accounts of the human past while also recognizing its diversity. For people with the some background in these topics, this is a book which can be read several times, providing new questions with each reading.

Power and Knowledge

E. Gellner analyzes the `Structure of Human History' alongside three axes: the division of labor (fighters, priests, workers), the economic evolution (hunting/gathering, agrarian and industrial society) and the concepts of coercion (power), cognition (knowledge) and production (manufacturing). While in hunting/gathering clans everything is intermingled, a division of labor becomes necessary in an agrarian society. The produced surplus must be stored and protected: `You own what you can defend' and `Property is Power'. Those who could defend (the rulers) used the prestige of religion for the legitimation and the cohesion of their power base. An agrarian society is authoritarian (wealth for the rulers, poverty of the ruled) and characterized by oppression, superstition and economic stagnation. Its philosophical proponent is Plato. Within one of the agrarian societies (Western Europe) a unique industrial and scientific revolution took place. E. Gellner cannot explain the cause(s) of this revolution. (For MHO, see the end of this review). The upheaval is characterized by the separation of cognition from authority and religion (Descartes). Authority is replaced by liberalism; religion by empiricism and rationalism (D. Hume: `superstition is the enemy of civil liberties'). Knowledge (innovation) is Power. The proponents of this revolution are the Enlightenment (Les Encyclopédistes) and the Progress (Darwin, Marx) philosophers. E. Gellner's vision on complex modern societies is far too optimistic: the maintenance of public order is not relatively easy. There is no push towards a more homogeneous humanity. He hoped that `a certain moral climate would prevail which would feel repugnant that anyone should be deprived of nourishment, medical attention, shelter and education.' This book is a little bit too abstract, but it remains still a very worth-while read. I prefer, however, Jared Diamond's `Guns, Germs and Steel'. N.B. Max Weber's thesis about the eruption of the industrial revolution (the link between Protestantism and capitalism) is still widely accepted. However, this link seems to be more an affair of coincidence rather than consequence. The main reason of the forceful development of the merchant society could be the loss of the stranglehold on monetary matters by the Church. The Church controlled 75 % of all monetary means in the Middle Ages (W. Manchester: `A World only lit by Fire') and drained them largely into unproductive investments. Once the stranglehold was broken (indeed, in protestant countries) the merchant class could freely build its commercial empire. One illustration: when Antwerp was attacked in the 17th century by the Catholic Spaniards, its merchant class fled to Amsterdam.

A Difficult but Valuable Text

Ernest Gellner's philosophy of human history as discussed in Plough, Sword, and Book offers readers a view of human history that is unique and comprehensive. The author aims to outline human history with theories and models that employ a method of deductive reasoning. Specifically, Gellner wishes to offer his readers a "clear and forceful" view of his philosophy so that it may be examined critically (page 13). Gellner's model of human history entails a society passing through three principal stages: hunting and gathering, agrarian society, and industrial society (pages 16-17). The author enlists a number of sources from which he derives his philosophic analysis of humanity's development and evolution. Gellner's discussion of Platonism with respect to cultural intuition and adoption of an explicit theory stating what had previously been a mere practice (pages 76-77) mingles with Hegel and Marxist theories on thought and politics (pages 142-143). His variety of sources allow for a wide range of both philosophic input and debate. Essentially, the author pushes for a philosophic historical outline that depicts hunting and gathering groups of humans who eventually initiate an agricultural community stemming from a sense of long-term obligation to their individual group (page 33). Agrarian societies-Gellner's plough-then pass into an industrial or urban society which allows for the entry of a class system in which social order must be maintained through defensive groups or order-enforcers (page 145)-Gellner's sword. The transitions between stages could not be possible without the cognitive development of mankind through the introduction of literacy (page 71) through religious scriptures-Gellner's book. In Gellner's model of human history, religion also provides legitimization of the social system (page 99) leading to modern society. As the author discusses the shift between the three principle stages of human history, he outlines the major activities that pushed society through the industrial and agricultural revolutions, or "great leaps" of human history. These activities fall into three main groups identified by Gellner as production, coercion, and cognition (page 20-23). Agrarian societies focused mainly on the production and storage of food (page 16) while Industrial societies focused on the production of wealth and weapons, or means of coercion, and the production of food becomes a lesser focus (page 17). One of the most important elements in the evolution of human history, cognition, occurred at the point when "the genetic equipment of man became so permissive as to allow the wide range of social comportment" that we can observe in the modern society (page 67). For the average reader, Gellner's "clear and forceful" statement (page 13) within the pages of Plough, Sword, and Book can be a bit overwhelming in that it provides a great deal of philosophic idea applied to history between the Neolithic age and the present. At ti