Page 95 - Berkshire Encyclopedia Of World History Vol I - Abraham to Coal

this fleeting world / acceleration: the agrarian era tfw-35

History, n. An account, mostly false, of events, mostly unimportant, which are brought about
by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools. • Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)

potamia. In the integrated world system that emerged Bentley, J. H., & Ziegler, H. F. (1999). Traditions and encounters:A global
during the sixteenth century, European states found them- perspective on the past. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Bulliet, R., Crossley, P. K., Headrick, D. R., Hirsch, S.W., Johnson, L. L.,
selves at the hub of the largest and most vigorous & Northrup, D. (2001). The Earth and its peoples: A global history
exchange networks that had ever existed.The huge flows (2nd ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Burenhult, G. (Ed.). (1993–1995). The illustrated history of mankind
of wealth and information that coursed through these
(Vols. 3–4). St. Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland Press.
networks would transform the role and significance of Christian, D. (2004). Maps of time: An introduction to big history. Berke-
Europe and the Atlantic region in world history, and ley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Cohen, M. (1977). The food crisis in prehistory. New Haven, CT: Yale
eventually they would transform the entire world. University Press.
Cohen, M. (1989). Health and the rise of civilization. New Haven, CT:
Agrarian Era in Yale University Press.
Diamond, J. (1998). Guns, germs, and steel:The fates of human societies.
World History London: Vintage.
The introduction of agricultural technologies raised pro- Ehret, C. (2002). The civilizations of Africa: A history to 1800. Char-
lottesville: University Press of Virginia.
ductivity, increased populations, and stimulated innova- Fagan, B. M. (2001). People of the Earth: An introduction to world pre-
tion. These developments explain why change was so history (10th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Heiser, C. B. (1990). Seed to civilization: The story of food. Cambridge,
much more rapid during the agrarian era than during the
MA: Harvard University Press.
era of foragers. Larger, denser communities created new Ladurie, E. L. (1974). The peasants of Languedoc (J. Day,Trans.). Urbana:
problems that were solved by forming the large, hierar- University of Illinois Press.
Livi-Bacci, M. (1992). A concise history of world population. Oxford, UK:
chical structures that we call “states,” “empires,” and “civ-
Blackwell.
ilizations.” Within these structures the very nature of Maddison, A. (2001). The world economy: A millenial perspective. Paris:
human communities was transformed as families and OECD.
McNeill, J. R., & McNeill, W. H. (2003). The human web: A bird’s-eye
households found themselves incorporated in, and dis- view of world history. New York: W.W. Norton.
ciplined by states, religions, and market forces. The McNeill,W. H. (1977). Plagues and people. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
McNeill,W. H. (1982). The pursuit of power:Technology, armed force and
exchange of technologies and goods between larger
society since A.D. 1000. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
regions and larger populations stimulated many small Mears, J. (2001). Agricultural origins in global perspective. In M. Adas
improvements in agrarian techniques, communications (Ed.), Agricultural and pastoral societies in ancient and classical his-
tory (pp. 36–70). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
technologies, and the technologies of information storage Piperno, D. R., & Pearsall, D. M. (1998). The origins of agriculture in the
and warfare. However, although innovation was much lowland neotropics. London: Academic Press.
Richerson, P. T., & Boyd, R. (2004). Not by genes alone: How culture
faster than it had been during the era of foragers, it was
transformed human evolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
rarely fast enough to keep pace with population growth, Sherratt, A. (1981). Plough and pastoralism: Aspects of the secondary
which is why, on the smaller scales that meant most to products revolution. In I. Hodder, G. Isaac, & N. Hammond (Eds.),
Patterns of the past (pp. 261–305). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Uni-
rulers and their subjects, the characteristic rhythm of versity Press.
change during the agrarian era was cyclical. Sherratt, A. (1997). The secondary exploitation of animals in the Old
World. World Archaeology, 15(1), 90–104.
The modern world built on the slow accumulation of
Smith, B. D. (1995). The emergence of agriculture. New York: Scientific
people, resources, and information that took place dur- American Library.
ing the agrarian era, but it was marked out from this era Taagepera, R. (1978). Size and duration of empires: Growth-decline
curves, 3000 to 600 BC. Social Science Research, 7, 180–196.
by another sharp acceleration in rates of innovation that
Taagepera, R. (1978). Size and duration of empires: Systematics of size.
would lead to one more fundamental transformation in Social Science Research, 7, 108–127.
human lifeways. Taagepera, R. (1979). Size and duration of empires: Growth-decline
curves, 600 BC to 600 AD. Social Science Research, 3, 115–138.
Taagepera, R. (1997). Expansion and contraction patterns of large poli-
ties: Context for Russia. International Studies Quarterly, 41(3), 475–
Further Reading 504.
Barber, E.W. (1994). Women’s work:The first 20,000 years:Women, cloth Wolf, E. R. (1982). Europe and the people without history. Berkeley and
and society in early times. New York: W.W. Norton. Los Angeles: University of California Press.