The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins

The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins PDF Author: Stefanos Geroulanos
Publisher: Liveright Publishing
ISBN: 1324091460
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 549

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Book Description
“[A]n incisive and captivating reassessment of prehistory . . . In lucid prose, Geroulanos unspools an enthralling and detailed history of the development of modern natural science. It’s a must-read.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “An astute, powerfully rendered history of humanity.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review An eminent historian tells the story of how we came to obsess over the origins of humanity—and how, for three centuries, ideas of prehistory have been used to justify devastating violence against others. Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundred years. In this coruscating work, acclaimed historian Stefanos Geroulanos demonstrates how claims about the earliest humans not only shaped Western intellectual culture, but gave rise to our modern world. The very idea that there was a human past before recorded history only emerged with the Enlightenment, when European thinkers began to reject faith-based notions of humanity and history in favor of supposedly more empirical ideas about the world. From the “state of nature” and Romantic notions of virtuous German barbarians to theories about Neanderthals, killer apes, and a matriarchal paradise where women ruled, Geroulanos captures the sheer variety and strangeness of the ideas that animated many of the major thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx. Yet as Geroulanos shows, such ideas became, for the most part, the ideological foundations of repressive regimes and globe-spanning empires. Deeming other peoples “savages” allowed for guilt-free violence against them; notions of “killer apes” who were our evolutionary predecessors made war seem natural. The emergence of modern science only accelerated the West’s imperialism. The Nazi obsession with race was rooted in archaeological claims about prehistoric IndoGermans; the idea that colonialized peoples could be “bombed back to the Stone Age” was made possible by the technology of flight and the anthropological idea that civilization advanced in stages. As Geroulanos argues, accounts of prehistory tell us more about the moment when they are proposed than about the deep past—and if we hope to start improving our future, we would be better off setting aside the search for how it all started. A necessary, timely, indelible account of how the quest for understanding the origins of humanity became the handmaiden of war and empire, The Invention of Prehistory will forever change how we think about the deep past.

The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins

The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins PDF Author: Stefanos Geroulanos
Publisher: Liveright Publishing
ISBN: 1324091460
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 549

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Book Description
“[A]n incisive and captivating reassessment of prehistory . . . In lucid prose, Geroulanos unspools an enthralling and detailed history of the development of modern natural science. It’s a must-read.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review “An astute, powerfully rendered history of humanity.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review An eminent historian tells the story of how we came to obsess over the origins of humanity—and how, for three centuries, ideas of prehistory have been used to justify devastating violence against others. Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings and speculate about what those findings tell us about our earliest ancestors. We are obsessed with prehistory—and, in this respect, our current era is no different from any other in the last three hundred years. In this coruscating work, acclaimed historian Stefanos Geroulanos demonstrates how claims about the earliest humans not only shaped Western intellectual culture, but gave rise to our modern world. The very idea that there was a human past before recorded history only emerged with the Enlightenment, when European thinkers began to reject faith-based notions of humanity and history in favor of supposedly more empirical ideas about the world. From the “state of nature” and Romantic notions of virtuous German barbarians to theories about Neanderthals, killer apes, and a matriarchal paradise where women ruled, Geroulanos captures the sheer variety and strangeness of the ideas that animated many of the major thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Darwin, and Karl Marx. Yet as Geroulanos shows, such ideas became, for the most part, the ideological foundations of repressive regimes and globe-spanning empires. Deeming other peoples “savages” allowed for guilt-free violence against them; notions of “killer apes” who were our evolutionary predecessors made war seem natural. The emergence of modern science only accelerated the West’s imperialism. The Nazi obsession with race was rooted in archaeological claims about prehistoric IndoGermans; the idea that colonialized peoples could be “bombed back to the Stone Age” was made possible by the technology of flight and the anthropological idea that civilization advanced in stages. As Geroulanos argues, accounts of prehistory tell us more about the moment when they are proposed than about the deep past—and if we hope to start improving our future, we would be better off setting aside the search for how it all started. A necessary, timely, indelible account of how the quest for understanding the origins of humanity became the handmaiden of war and empire, The Invention of Prehistory will forever change how we think about the deep past.

Understanding Adorno, Understanding Modernism

Understanding Adorno, Understanding Modernism PDF Author: Robin Truth Goodman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1501342975
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
Having studied philosophy at a time when its traditions were being seriously uprooted by the atrocities of World War II, Theodor Adorno had an enormous impact on thinking about aesthetics at a transitional historical moment when the philosophy of science and leftist politics were looking for new ground. Moreover, with his focus on the rise of commercial culture and its effects on identity-construction, Adorno can be said to have reinvigorated modernist concerns by introducing the prevailing terms in our contemporary versions of cultural politics and cultural studies. Understanding Adorno, Understanding Modernism traces Adorno's social and aesthetic ideas as they appear and reappear in his corpus. As per other volumes in the series, this book is divided into three parts. The first, “Adorno's Keywords,” is organized by the aesthetic terms around which Adorno's philosophy circulates. The second section is devoted to “Adorno and Aesthetics.” While Adorno's philosophical viewpoints influenced modernism's evolution into the 21st century, the history of modernist aesthetics also shaped his philosophical approaches. The third and final part, “Adorno's Constellations,” discusses how aesthetic form in Adorno's thinking underlies the terms of his social analysis.

Gandhi's Experiments with Truth

Gandhi's Experiments with Truth PDF Author: Richard L. Johnson
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739111437
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 414

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Book Description
This comprehensive Gandhi reader provides an essential new reference for scholars and students of his life and thought. It is the only text available that presents Gandhi's own writings, including excerpts from three of his books--An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Satyagraha in South Africa, Hind Swaraj (Indian Home Rule)-a major pamphlet, Constructive Programme: Its Meaning and Place, and many journal articles and letters along with a biographical sketch of his life in historical context and recent essays by highly regarded scholars. The writers of these essays--hailing from the United States, Canada, Great Britain and India, with academic credentials in several different disciplines--examine his nonviolent campaigns, his development of programs to unify India, and his impact on the world in the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. Gandhi's Experiments with Truth provides an unparalleled range of scholarly material and perspectives on this enduring philosopher, peace activist, and spiritual guide.

The Great Turning

The Great Turning PDF Author: David C. Korten
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1442964278
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 706

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Book Description
Although the issues addressed in The Great Turning are global and universal, I have chosen to focus my analysis on the United States. It is the nation among all others that is most challenged by the imperatives of the Great Turning. Few other nations are so accustomed to living beyond their own means, so imbued with a sense of special virtue and entitlement, or so burdened by a political leadership as out of touch with global reality and as incapable of accepting responsibility for the consequences of its actions. Because of its global presence, whether the United States responds to the imperatives with the logic of Empire or the logic of Earth Community is likely to have far-reaching consequences for all nations. Furthermore, the United States is the nation of my birth, the nation I know best and love most, and the nation for whose role in the world I feel most responsible.

Handbook of Research on Aestheticization of Violence, Horror, and Power

Handbook of Research on Aestheticization of Violence, Horror, and Power PDF Author: Erdem, M. Nur
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1799846563
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 696

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Book Description
Individuals seek ways to repress the sense of violence within themselves and often resort to medial channels. The hunger of the individual for violence is a trigger for the generation of violent content by media, owners of political power, owners of religious power, etc. However, this content is produced considering the individual’s sensitivities. Thus, violence is aestheticized. Aesthetics of violence appear in different fields and in different forms. In order to analyze it, an interdisciplinary perspective is required. The Handbook of Research on Aestheticization of Violence, Horror, and Power brings together two different concepts that seem incompatible—aesthetics and violence—and focuses on the basic motives of aestheticizing and presenting violence in different fields and genres, as well as the role of audience reception. Seeking to reveal this togetherness with different methods, research, analyses, and findings in different fields that include media, urban design, art, and mythology, the book covers the aestheticization of fear, power, and violence in such mediums as public relations, digital games, and performance art. This comprehensive reference is an ideal source for researchers, academicians, and students working in the fields of media, culture, art, politics, architecture, aesthetics, history, cultural anthropology, and more.

A Commentary, Critical, Experimental, and Practical on the Old and New Testaments

A Commentary, Critical, Experimental, and Practical on the Old and New Testaments PDF Author: Robert Jamieson (D.D.)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 822

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Book Description


A Commentary, Critical, Experimental, and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, by the Rev. R. Jamieson, Rev. A. R. Fausset ... and the Rev. David Brown. [With the Text.]

A Commentary, Critical, Experimental, and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, by the Rev. R. Jamieson, Rev. A. R. Fausset ... and the Rev. David Brown. [With the Text.] PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 744

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Book Description


Government and Community

Government and Community PDF Author: Jack Robert Lander
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674357945
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 420

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Book Description
"The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic wars fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the houses of Lancaster and York (whose heraldic symbols were the red and the white rose, respectively) for the throne of England. They were fought in several sporadic episodes between 1455 and 1485, although there was related fighting both before and after this period. They resulted from the social and financial troubles following the Hundred Years' War. The final victory went to a relatively remote Lancastrian claimant, Henry Tudor, who defeated the last Yorkist king Richard III and married Edward IV's daughter Elizabeth of York to unite the two houses. The House of Tudor subsequently ruled England and Wales for 117 years."--Wikipedia.

The Great Turning (Volume 1 of 2) (EasyRead Large Bold Edition)

The Great Turning (Volume 1 of 2) (EasyRead Large Bold Edition) PDF Author:
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1442964243
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description


The Object of Experiment

The Object of Experiment PDF Author: Warren Tswun-Hwa Liu
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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Book Description