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A Brief Selection Of The Intellectual Contributions Of Ross R. Maxwell To Civilizational Studies, Joseph Drew

Comparative Civilizations Review

Ross R. Maxwell was a man of immense intellectual gifts. Especially in his later years, many of these related to the theory of civilizations. His untimely death has silenced a prolific generator of incisive thoughts about this discipline.

Bits Of Wisdom, Ross R. Maxwell

Comparative Civilizations Review

I collected theses thoughts and intuitions, because in one way or another they were meaningful to me.

R.R.M. 12/20/82

The Ancient Greek Roots Of Cross-Cultural Comparison, Stavros Moutsios

Comparative Civilizations Review

The paper traces the impartial comparative gaze of the Ancient Greeks, in relation to their ontological understanding of the world, and with respect to the domains of epistêmê, politics, and paideia, all operating in the field of logos, which underpinned the life of the democratic polis. The absence of any apocalyptic truth and predefined historical pathway in the Greeks’ conception of the world, their esteem for intellectual activity and philosophical inquiry, and their questioning of their laws and institutions as part of their educational and political life are all, as the paper demonstrates, at the root of …

Herodotus And The Histories: Accounts Of Intercivilizational Contact, Carlos Alberto Ríos Gordillo

Comparative Civilizations Review

The globalization of the earth, the old colonial dream of the sixteenth century, is still a challenge to historical understanding. In the contemporary debate, comparative history and global history have gained increasing interest as we try to explain the four parts of the planet in an overview, which allows us to think about the world, modernity, and universal history in a different way than a simple European expansion in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The theater of observation has become global when it relates Japan to China, India to New Spain, Portugal to Spain, Britain to the Netherlands to Indians, …

The World System, Regional Systems, And The Limitations Of Historical Urban Population Datasets, Karl E. Ryavec

Comparative Civilizations Review

This study presents a method for mapping and comparing the regional extents of historical city-based economies at the global scale by integrating the World-Systems Theory of Immanuel Wallerstein with the Regional Systems Theory of G. W. Skinner. The approach taken here focuses on mapping urban cores and their rural peripheries based on available disaggregated urban population estimates for 1741 cities according to six main historical periods from ca. 3700 BCE to 1900 CE. As a result, a spatial history of some regional-scale changes wrought by increasing modes of capitalism in the Modern and Industrial periods may be compared with earlier …

One Book—Two Authors—Whose Ideas?, Leland Conley Barrows

Comparative Civilizations Review

This short essay attempts to answer some questions that came to my mind regarding the authorship and the origin of ideas developed in De la Sénégambie française (Paris: Librairie de Firmin Didot Frères, Fils et Cie., 1855) by Frédéric Carrère and Paul Holle, two notables of mid-nineteenth century Saint-Louis, Senegal. I had been commissioned to prepare an analysis of the attitudes towards Islam of the authors for Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History 1500-1900, a multi-volume series of bibliographical studies under preparation by the Department of Theology and Religion of the University of Birmingham in England being published, volume by …

Letter To The Editor: The Pahlavis And The Other Side Of The Coins, Ardavan Khoshnood

Comparative Civilizations Review

It was with great interest that I read “Political Power of Iranian Hierocracies” by János Jany published in Comparative Civilizations Review (83, 2020: 67-102). Writing about Iranian history is not an easy task because historical points of view have been highly politicized. Such is particularly the case when discussing the Pahlavi dynasty, particularly its founder, Reza Shah Pahlavi, and his successor, Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi. It is therefore of major importance to be transparent and, when feasible, to present the varying views and schools of thought which may exist with respect to the Pahlavi dynasty (Khoshnood, 2019).

Book Review: Michel Danino. The Lost River: On The Trail Of The Sarasvati, Joseph Drew

Comparative Civilizations Review

When early civilizations were listed back at the beginning of the modern discipline that constitutes the comparative study of civilizations, one of the greatest of them all was yet essentially unknown. It was only about a century ago that information was brought forward on the possible existence of this most interesting, extensive, and influential Bronze Age civilization, the Indus River Valley Civilization.

Jennifer E. Sessions. By Sword And Plow: France And The Conquest Of Algeria, Thomas Deltombe, Manuel Domergue, And Jacob Tatsitsa. Kamerun! Une Guerre Cachée De La Françafrique (1948-1971), Thomas Deltombe, Manuel Domergue, And Jacob Tatsitsa. La Guerre Du Cameroun: L’Invention De La Françafrique 1948-1971, Leland Conley Barrows

Comparative Civilizations Review

The legacy of the colonial period continues to weigh on France. Recently, President Emmanuel Macron called for the creation of a “Memories and Truth Commission” to lay to rest the lingering questions, bitterness, and controversies surrounding the French occupation of Algeria, the independence war, and the country’s accession to independence. Questions regarding the brutality of French colonial conquests and colonial rule in tropical Africa are also being raised. Immigration from Algeria and other formerly French territories is provoking controversy as is also the fact that France has the largest Muslim population of any European country. Many French citizens, particularly those …

Jack Weatherford. Genghis Khan And The Making Of The Modern World, Ashok Kumar Malhotra

Comparative Civilizations Review

Jack Weatherford’s book Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World is divided into three segments. Part one tells the story of Genghis Khan’s birth in 1162, his rise to power on the steppe, and the influence of the steppe in shaping his mindset. Growing up in this wilderness helped fashion the personality which led him to consolidate many warring tribes into a single Mongolian country by 1206. Furthermore, unifying these diverse ethnic groups into a Mongolian nation provided Genghis Khan an excellent model which he replicated in the rest of the world. Part two is devoted to the …

Macgregor Knox And Williamson Murray, Eds. The Dynamics Of Military Revolution, 1300–2050, Stephen T. Satkiewicz

Comparative Civilizations Review

Carl von Clausewitz famously declared “War is but the continuation of politics by other means.” It could just as easily be declared that war is the continuation of civilization by other means, concerning how different societies and cultures fight can be reflective of their distinct characters as much as any other factor. The study of war from the civilizational perspective is not new; for example, former ISCSC presidents Pitirim Sorokin and Matthew Melko did their own studies related to the matter. Into this mix come MacGregor Knox and Williamson Murray in their edited volume The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300–2050 …

Rutger Bregman. Humankind: A Hopeful History, John Bertreaux

Comparative Civilizations Review

Do crises bring out the best or the worst in people? Are humans inclined to be evil, or are they more likely to be good, to do the right thing? Is civilization simply a thin veneer that is easily scratched away? From Church Father St. Augustine (354-430) to French theologian, pastor, and reformer John Calvin (1509-1564), we are depicted, if not as totally depraved and evil, at least, as the bearers of original sin. While perusing Rutger Bregman’s hopeful history, I happened upon a newspaper article announcing an exhibition of drawings and prints of Francisco Goya (1746-1828), at the Metropolitan …

Rachel M. Stein, Vengeful Citizens, Violent States. A Theory Of War And Revenge, Jamie Gonzalez

Comparative Civilizations Review

From the very outset, Western civilization postulated revenge as a significant cause of armed conflict. The Iliad’s storyline, the first extant literary text in our Western tradition, revolves around the concept of a Greek retaliatory military campaign against a foreign enemy. The Greeks sail to Priam’s city, intending to make the Trojans pay for the abduction of Helen. The first historiography work in the Western canon (Herodotus’ Histories) posits a framework of an eternal cycle of revenge between East and West. The “Father of History” structures the narrative at the beginning of his work as a cycle of abduction …

Perceived Family And Partner Support And The Work-Family Interface: A Meta-Analytic Review, Heather H. Kelley, Ashley B. Lebaron, E. Jeffery Hill, Diana Meter

Faculty Publications

This study employed meta-analytic techniques to elucidate the role of perceived partner and family support in four measures of the work-family interface. We extracted 183 effect sizes from 82 samples and a total of N = 36,226 individuals. We found perceived familial (partner and family) support was negatively associated with work-to-family conflict (r = -.099) and family-to-work conflict (r = -.178). It was positively associated with work-to-family enrichment (r = .173) and family-to-work enrichment (r = .378). Various sample-level moderators were investigated through meta regression and subgroup analyses, including whether the support measure was family or partner focused. Perceived family …