Prologue to Ways of the World (2nd Edition) By Robert W. Strayer

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In our World History course this semester, we will be diving into the work of Robert W. Strayer, PhD with his book, Ways of the World.  Strayer’s work specializes into African, Soviet, and World studies, and he has been awarded Excellence in Teaching, as well as an Excellence in Scholarship by the Chancellor’s Awards at the University of New York College in Brockport.  At this point we have only covered the prologue to the textbook, but his strength lies within putting the context into tangible concepts that are easy to put to scale.  For example, when Strayer presents the chronological order of events into perspective, he illustrates the aftermath of the Big Bang phenomenon into a “Cosmic Calendar” that correlates January 1^st as the beginning of time with the “Big Bang”, and December 31^st as the Earth that exists today.  I was impressed to learn that on the scale of this metaphorical calendar, the appearance of the first human like creature that evolved into the everyday man and woman occurred approximately around the late evening time of the very last day on this calendar.  In other words, the lifespan of mankind is merely a fraction within a fraction of time when compared to preexisting single celled organisms, the creation of the planet Earth, and the formation of the entire universe.

 

Another interesting approach Strayer announced in his prologue was how he simplified the stages of human evolution between three major phases: the Paleolithic Age, the Agricultural Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution.  He explains that the entire existence of mankind was primarily spent in the Paleolithic era; at least 95% of the time humans roamed the earth was set in the “stone age” of hunting and gathering.  The other 5% of time was spent developing resources needed to regulate the basic needs of human life.  The Agricultural Revolution was essentially spent domesticating plant and animal life with farming and irrigation systems, and was the beginning of establishing societies and cities.  The Industrial Revolution that followed the agricultural stability greatly advanced mankind into more efficient productivity, accumulate more wealth, and created inventions to manufacture and self regulate other conveniences which can improve the quality of life.

I find this information both alarming and incredible because for the limited amount of time that the Homo sapiens specie existed, the developmental growth of the human mind accelerated at an exponential rate, and this skill enabled their ability to forge tools and manipulate technology.  Humans harnessed their knowledge to increase the duration of their lives with medicines, they have built intricate colonies with irrigation and agricultural systems, and they have also developed importation systems to pull resources and inhabit most of the earth land masses.   By eliminating most of the worldly dangers of predators, famine, and diseases that kept other species in balance, humans were able to prolong death and reproduce faster, resulting in higher concentrations of populations around the globe.  Considering the preceding life forms that occupied the Earth were not as prolific as the human race, I find the prowess of mankind to be alarming in relation to the adverse conditions of the world.  The best analogy (although grim) I can compare our dominance to is by the quote within The Matrix movie written by Andy and Lana Wachowski:

"Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not.  You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area.  There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern.  Do you know what it is?  A virus.  Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet." ~Monologue performed by Hugo Weaving.

Although Strayer’s portrayal of human evolution was absent of any foreboding, his frame of interest is helping the reader understand the complexities of events and the rationale behind the pivotal moments in history.  Rather than strictly focusing on the developing power countries, and their rise to governments, Strayer explains that it is important to understand history from the global standpoint to remove the segregated barriers and to understand all perspectives.  In order to understand the world, he presents the “Three C’s of World History”: Change, Comparison, and Connection.  The biggest “changes” to focus on are the lives that existed before, and how they developed over time.  By understanding change, we will learn how some civilizations flourish while others parish, and understand how regions were able to progress faster than others.  The best way to identify the similarities and differences between the cultures is by “comparing” and contrasting the elements and foundations of what embody the specific groups.  After identifying the changes and evaluating comparisons, we can then draw connections of the resulting interactions and conclude on what these trends may unfold should the same events begin to reoccur.  I believe these are excellent tools to prepare the reader on what they will learn and discover when digesting Strayer’s book, and if his passages are as clear to understand as he wrote in his Prologue, I believe we will reach a deeper understanding in learning the ways of the world.