TY  - BOOK
AU  - Gellner,Ernest
TI  - Plough, sword, and book: the structure of human history 
SN  - 0226287025 (pbk.)
U1  -  901 22
PY  - 1990///, c1988
CY  - Chicago
PB  - University of Chicago Press
KW  - History
KW  - Philosophy
KW  - Historiography
KW  - Anthropology
N1  - Include index
N2  - "British philosopher/anthropologist Gellner offers a comprehensive theory of history: humans settle into agriculture, produce surpluses, and divide into complex subgroups. Communication becomes pressing. Written language emerges as a controlling super-reality, bringing a Platonic illusion of an eternal world. Gradually, facts take precedence over concepts and "objective knowledge" is born. This scheme takes us from the tribal society to the Royal Society, but Gellner has not met all the challenges. There are still those who think that real knowledge is offered only by theology, or Platonic mathematical and logical reality, or a society free of class tension. And Franz Borkenau urged in End and Beginning (LJ 1/11/81) that all knowable reality is powerfully shaped by language. Thought-provoking but not conclusive."--Www.amazon (Nov. 8, 2010)
ER  -