authors:
- Gellner, Ernest
content: 'Interesting, at times fascinating, but also occasionally frustrating and
  annoying. Gellner posits three main stages of society: hunter/gatherer, agriculture
  and industry. He argues that the nature of cognition, production and coercion (power)
  is quite different in each stage. The development of an industrial society based
  on industry was a singular event, since agriculture, from which it arose, is inherently
  conservative and stable. Very particular circumstances had to occur simultaneously
  for a rational, enlightened, liberal society to emerge.


  Some observations and analyses are convincing, others not quite. A major issue is
  the pervasive lack of concrete examples. For instance, Gellner discusses at length
  the "many-strandedness" of cognition in hunter/gatherer and agricultural society,
  and contrasts it with the "single-strandedness" characteristic of rational thought.
  But he gives few, if any, concrete examples of what this many-strandedness consist
  of.


  As to the writing, it is clear and reasonably straightforward, but with an annoying
  habit of being indirect. Instead of being explicit that some argument or observation
  is about, say, the French Revolution, Gellner wraps it up in indirect descriptions,
  assuming that the reader can figure it out for himself. Elegant, perhaps. But also
  intellectually arrogant.'
date: '2020-09-06'
edition:
  published: '1990'
  publisher: University of Chicago Press
goodreads: '635217'
html: '<p>Interesting, at times fascinating, but also occasionally frustrating and
  annoying. Gellner posits three main stages of society: hunter/gatherer, agriculture
  and industry. He argues that the nature of cognition, production and coercion (power)
  is quite different in each stage. The development of an industrial society based
  on industry was a singular event, since agriculture, from which it arose, is inherently
  conservative and stable. Very particular circumstances had to occur simultaneously
  for a rational, enlightened, liberal society to emerge.</p>

  <p>Some observations and analyses are convincing, others not quite. A major issue
  is the pervasive lack of concrete examples. For instance, Gellner discusses at length
  the &quot;many-strandedness&quot; of cognition in hunter/gatherer and agricultural
  society, and contrasts it with the &quot;single-strandedness&quot; characteristic
  of rational thought. But he gives few, if any, concrete examples of what this many-strandedness
  consist of.</p>

  <p>As to the writing, it is clear and reasonably straightforward, but with an annoying
  habit of being indirect. Instead of being explicit that some argument or observation
  is about, say, the French Revolution, Gellner wraps it up in indirect descriptions,
  assuming that the reader can figure it out for himself. Elegant, perhaps. But also
  intellectually arrogant.</p>

  '
isbn: '9780226287027'
language: en
lastmod: '2020-09-06'
path: /library/gellner-1990.html
published: '1990'
rating: 3
reference: Gellner 1990
reviewed: '2020-09-06'
subjects:
- history
- human-evolution
- morality
- political-philosophy
- religion
title: 'Plough, Sword and Book: The Structure of Human History'
type: book
year: 1990