Understanding preindustrial societies (which were of necessity predominately agrarian) is surely very valuable to understanding how the modern world came to be, and where it might be heading. However to restrict this understanding almost entirely to what was known thirty-five years ago of agrarian Islamic societies, as Crone did, seems difficult to justify. The past third of a century has brought a great deal of knowledge regarding various important preindustrial societies which of course was entirely unknown to Crone, and about which in certain cases she had rather odd ideas. Students today would be better served by a less-dated book, such as Nolan, Patrick; Lenski, Gerhard (2015): Human societies. An introduction to macrosociology. Twelfth Edition. New York: Oxford University Press. Better yet, perhaps, would be assignment of a curated assortment of recent papers. And no review of this or other of her books should give the impression that her views on Islamic history, scholarly though they were, are or were even remotely universally accepted.
$100 bucks for Nolan? Naaahhhh. & "a curated assortment of recent papers" requires someone to have done the curation, that the curated papers be readable, and that the curated papers be short...
Karatani Kojin is perhaps the most well known public intellectual in Japan. He writes as a provocateur, someone who turns established ideas upside down (not production, but exchange; not Athens, but Ionia). He is not a historian, and would never aim to write a survey book.
Professor, check your math!
It's 35 years and yes we are old.
Hate to tell you (and myself), but 1989 was _35_ y.a.
Understanding preindustrial societies (which were of necessity predominately agrarian) is surely very valuable to understanding how the modern world came to be, and where it might be heading. However to restrict this understanding almost entirely to what was known thirty-five years ago of agrarian Islamic societies, as Crone did, seems difficult to justify. The past third of a century has brought a great deal of knowledge regarding various important preindustrial societies which of course was entirely unknown to Crone, and about which in certain cases she had rather odd ideas. Students today would be better served by a less-dated book, such as Nolan, Patrick; Lenski, Gerhard (2015): Human societies. An introduction to macrosociology. Twelfth Edition. New York: Oxford University Press. Better yet, perhaps, would be assignment of a curated assortment of recent papers. And no review of this or other of her books should give the impression that her views on Islamic history, scholarly though they were, are or were even remotely universally accepted.
$100 bucks for Nolan? Naaahhhh. & "a curated assortment of recent papers" requires someone to have done the curation, that the curated papers be readable, and that the curated papers be short...
What's been learned about Islamic pre-industrialism that clashes with what Crone says? What did she miss?
Now on my list too.
A new book for my nonfiction book group.
Karatani Kojin is perhaps the most well known public intellectual in Japan. He writes as a provocateur, someone who turns established ideas upside down (not production, but exchange; not Athens, but Ionia). He is not a historian, and would never aim to write a survey book.
I liked Stavrianos's Lifelines from Our Past, but it is only partly about tributary societies.