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Question: What are some major patterns/trends/themes in human history?

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What I'm Looking For:
1) a list of at least 25 categories 
2) references to a few good books on the subject


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Example of what I'm looking for:


List of Patterns/Trends/Themes in Human History
1) Advancements/Improvements in Technology
2) Explorations/Discoveries
3) Wars
4) Formations & Break-ups of Nations/Civilizations
5) ....
6) .... and so on 
...
25) .... 
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Thank you for your time & your help.

Hallo, 

Here?s a list of the patterns I thought of. Naturally, some
intertwine, and there might be other topics that I haven?t thought of
(though I think that I have covered almost everything, if not
everything).

(1)	Formation (and changes in the formation and the structure) of
families, clans and tribes.
Marriage, a History: From Obedience to Intimacy, or How Love Conquered Marriage 
by Stephanie Coontz
Centuries of Childhood : A Social History of Family Life by Philippe Aries
A History of Childhood: Children and Childhood in the West from
Medieval to Modern Times
by Colin Heywood
Domestic Revolutions : A Social History Of American Family Life 
by Steven Mintz

(2)	Formations & Break-ups of Nations/Civilizations 
A History of Civilizations  by Fernand Braudel and Richard Mayne
 
Western Civilization: A Brief History  by Marvin Perry and George W. Bock

?  Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, 2001, Civilizations, Free Press, London. 
?  Brinton, Crane, John B. Christopher, Robert Lee Wolff, and Robin W.
Winks. A History of Civilization: Prehistory to 1715. Volume 1. Sixth
Edition. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1984.

(3)	Migration
Migration in World History by Patrick Manning

Migration, Migration History, History: Old Paradigms And New Perspectives
by Jan Lucassen and Leo Lucassen
Migration in History by Marc S. Rodriguez

(4)	Work-relations, distribution and allocation of resources. 
Labouring men: Studies in the history of labour  by E. J Hobsbawm
Making of the English Working Class (Vintage) by E.P. Thompson
The Great Wave : Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History
(Paperback)  by David Hackett Fischer

(5)	Advances in Technology
Science and Technology in World History : An Introduction by James E.
III McClellan and Harold Dorn
Wheels, Clocks, and Rockets: A History of Technology  by Donald Cardwell
A Short History of Technology : From the Earliest Times to a.d. 1900 
by T. K. Derry and Trevor I. Williams
Hubris And Hybrids: A Cultural History of Technology and Science  by
Mikael Hard and Andrew Jamison

(6)	Explorations/Discoveries
Explorations in Connected History : From the Tagus to the Ganges  by
Sanjay Subrahmanyam
New Found Lands; Maps in the History of Exploration  by P. WHITFIELD

(7)	Wars
The Cambridge Illustrated History of Warfare  by Geoffrey Parker
A History of Warfare (Vintage)  by John Keegan
World History of Warfare (Tactics & Strategies)by John Robert Ferris,
Holger H. Herwig,

(8)	Advances in the development of ideas  
Ideas : A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud  by Peter Watson
New Dictionary of the History of Ideas by Maryanne Cline Horowitz
Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas.
Ed. Philip P. Wiener. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973-74.
(Online edition from the University of Virginia library's Electronic
Text Center.)
< http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/DicHist/dict.html> 

(9)	Changes in Communication
History Of Communication Study by Everett M. Rogers
From Yahweh to Yahoo!: The Religious Roots of the Secular Press by Doug Underwood
Theorizing Communication : A History by Dan Schiller

(10)	Changes in Language Development
History of Language by Steven Roger Fischer
A History of the English Language by Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable
In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language  by Joel M. Hoffman
Empires of the Word : A Language History of the World  by Nicholas Ostler

(11)	Revolutions
Social Revolutions in the Modern World by Theda Skocpol, Peter Lange,
Robert H. Bates, Ellen Comisso, Peter Hall, Joel Migdal, and Helen
Milner
Revolutions and Revolutionary Movements by James Defronzo
Revolution and Rebellion in the Early Modern World by Jack A. Goldstone

(12)	Changes in Pastime
Bottoms Up!: Toasts, Tales & Traditions Of Drinking's Long History As
A Nautical Pastime by Robert McKenna
Histories of Leisure (Leisure, Consumption and Culture)  by Rudy Koshar
 A Social History of Leisure Since 1600 by Gary S. Cross

(13)	Development of Norms and Laws
Sadakat Kadri, The Trial: A History from Socrates to O.J. Simpson,
HarperCollins 2005
Law and Colonial Cultures : Legal Regimes in World History, 1400-1900
by Lauren Benton, Michael Adas, Edmund Burke III, and Philip D. Curtin

(14)	Alterations the Modes of Habitation
Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History  by Elizabeth Barlow Rogers 
Understanding Architecture: An Introduction To Architecture And
Architectural History by Hazel Conway and Rowan Roenisch (November,
2004)

(15)	Syncretism , Integration and Adaptation
Labor Market Evolution : The Economic History of Market Integration,
Wage Flexibility and the Employment Relation by G. GRANTHAM
Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American
Life  by Roger Daniels

(16)	Plagues and Diseases
MAN AND MICROBES: Disease and Plagues in History and Modern Times by Arno Karlen
Viruses, Plagues, and History by Michael B. A. Oldstone
Pox, Pus & Plague: A History Of Disease And Infection  by John Townsend

(17)	Agreements and Contract
Cultures of Peace: The Hidden Side of History  by Elise Boulding (May, 2000)
After Victory  by G. John Ikenberry
The Shield of Achilles by Philip Bobbit

(18)	Natural Disasters 
Acts of God : The Unnatural History of Natural Disaster in America by Ted Steinberg
Dangerous Planet : Natural Disasters That Changed History by Bryn Barnard

(19)	Religious and Spiritual Changes, Conversions, etc. 
A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and
Islam by Karen Armstrong
 A History of the World's Religions  by David S. Noss
The Cambridge Illustrated History of Religions  by John Bowker

(20)	Cultural Changes
The Ancient World : A Social and Cultural History by D. Brendan Nagle
Vanilla : The Cultural History of the World's Favorite Flavor and
Fragrance by Patricia Rain

(21)	Education, Learning and Socialisation
A History of Education in Antiquity   by Henri Irenee Marrou
History of Education in America  by John D. Pulliam, James J. Van Patten

(22)	Experimentation
 
The Abuse of Man: An Illustrated History of Dubious Medical
Experimentation by Wolfgang Weyers
In the Name of Science: A History of Secret Programs, Medical
Research, and Human Experimentation by Andrew Goliszek
Experimental Inquiries : Historical, Philosophical and Social Studies
of Experimentation in Science  by H.E. Le Grand

(23)	Changes in Nursing, Care and Welfare 
Nursing, the Finest Art: An Illustrated History by M. Patricia Donahue
History of Nursing Ideas  by Linda C., Ph.D. Andrist, Patrice K.
Nicholas, Karen A., Ph.D. Wolf
A New History of Social Welfare  by Phyllis J. Day

(24)	Changes in Sexuality 
The History of Sexuality : An Introduction  by Michel Foucaul
Histories of Sexuality; antiquity to sexual revolution by STEPHEN GARTON

(25)	Art and Creative Life

History of Art, Revised  by Anthony F. Janson
The Art of Art History: A Critical Anthology  by Donald Preziosi

Except for that, here are several other books: 
A Short History of the World
by John M. Roberts 
The New History of the World
by J. M. Roberts
A Little History of the World  by E. H. Gombrich (for children) 
Rethinking World History : Essays on Europe, Islam and World History 
by Marshall G. S. Hodgson, III, Edmund Burke (Editor), Michael Adas
A Short History of Nearly Everything 
by Bill Bryson

I hope this answers your question. Please contact me if you need any
clarification on this answer before you rate it.

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Request for Answer Clarification by optinaut-ga on 29 Apr 2006 13:49 PDT

Hi politicalguru,

Wow! That was fast. Good job so far. I'm pleased with the list.
I posted a book recommendation request at yahoo answers last night and
based on the amazon.com reviews, I thought 2 books were on the same
page with what I wanted:

Modern Times by Paul Johnson
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond

These are the kinds of books I'm looking for. Those that explicitly
identify & enumerate these patterns/trends/themes in human history. I
need road-map, survey types of references where each pattern has
already been identified instead of  having to go thru all the specific
events in history and trying to extract/induce a general pattern,
which may not have been apparent to me in the first place or just
eludes me.

If you can add a few more of those types of books to the list, then
we'll call it even.

Regards,
optinaut

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Request for Answer Clarification by optinaut-ga on 29 Apr 2006 14:22 PDT

All kinds of references are welcome. Links to good websites would be useful.

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Clarification of Answer by politicalguru-ga on 29 Apr 2006 22:52 PDT

I don't know "The Modern Times", but "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The
Fates of Human Societies" is a great book and certainly recommended. I
will also ask my fellow Researchers to add their opinions.

I'm happy to suggest two other works that might be useful:


THE MARCH OF FOLLY: FROM TROY TO VIETNAM, 1984 by Barbara Tuchman
looks at the history of human conflicts writ large, and the propensity
for those in power to make calamitous mistakes.


THE WEALTH OF NATIONS by Adam Smith is a beautiful book and can be
read online.  It details the patterns of historical transition from
pre-capitalistic to capitalistic economies, a transition which has
given the modern world much of its present-day character.


Hope that helps some.

paf

A classic book that I consider most enlightening is "Democracy in
America", a study of democracy and America itself in 1830s' America by
French sociologist Alexis de Tocqueville, researched "in situ". It's a
thorough analysis, with hypothesis of political and economical future
events that actually occurred in the twentieth century. It can be read
online at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/home.html

On a different note, I found extremely interesting as much as
controversial the contemporary text "Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans
and Other Animals", by British philosopher John Gray (please do not
mistake him for the author of "Men are from Mars...", who is a homonym
not so deserving of attention, IMHO)

Have a nice reading! :)

Guillermo

Another pattern/trend in human history could be that expressed by:
Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.  A search with the
first three words turns up several sites:

http://home.uchicago.edu/~nstokey/im22.pdf
http://www.successcare.com/document.cfm?documentid=412&categoryid=70
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&endeca=1&isbn=157660151X&itm=2
http://www.worldvision.org/Worldvision/WVFAN/News.nsf/1e1a6adf53a24b9a872567ae0076442d/509879e733375da588256dbf007c4438!OpenDocument