书名: The Paths of History
作者: Igor M. Diakonoff (Author)
出版社: Cambridge University Press (September 28, 1999)
语言：English
ISBN-10: 0521643481
ISBN-13: 978-0521643481
Book Description
This is a broad and ambitious study of the entire history of humanity that takes as its point of departure Marx's theory of social evolution. Professor Diakonoff's theory of world history differs from Marx's in a number of ways. First, he has expanded Marx's five stages of development to eight. Second, he denies that social evolution necessarily implies progress and shows how "each progress is simultaneously a regress," and third, he demonstrates that the transition from one stage to another is not necessarily marked by social conflict and that sometimes this is achieved peacefully and gracefully. As the book moves through these various stages, the reader is drawn into a remarkable and thought-provoking study of the process of the history of the human race that focuses on the wide range of factors (economic, social, military-technological, and socio-pyschological) that have influenced our development from palaeolithic times to the present day.
Review
"Igor Diakonoff's The Paths of History is a remarkable survey of world history by a Russian orientalist, using a Marxist interpretation as a point of departure." -- Eric Hobsbawm, New Statesman & Society
"...this is an important book... would expect Diakonoff's work to provide the starting-point for lively discussion and research. First of all we need an English translation." -- Times Literary Supplement
