The Outline of History

Előszó

INTRODUCTION "A philosophy of the history of the humán race, worthy of its name, must begin with the heavens and descend to the earth, must be charged with the conviction that all existence is one-a single conception sustained from beginning to end upon one identical law" HIS Outline of History, of which this is a third edition, freshly revised and rearranged, is an attempt to teli, traly and clearly, in one continuous narrative, the whole story of life and mankind so far as it is known to-day. It is written plainly for the generál reader, but its aim goes beyond its use as merely interesting reading matter. There is a feeling abroad that the teaching of history considered as a part of generál education is in an unsatisfaetory condition, and particularly that the ordinary treatment of this "subject" by the eláss and teacher and examiner is too partial and narrow. But the desire to extend the generál rangé of historical ideas is confronted by the argument that the available time for instruction is already consumed by that partial and narrow treatment, and that therefore, however desirable this extension of rangé may be, it is in practice impossible. If an Englishman, for example, has found the history of England quite enough for his powers of assimilation, then it seems hopeless to expect his sons and daughters to master universal history, if that is to consist of the history of England, plus the history of Francé, plus the history of Germany, plus the history of Russia, and so on. To which the only possible answer is that universal history is at once something more and something less than the aggregate of the national histories to which we are accustomed, that it must be approached in a different spirit and dealt with in a different manner. This book seeks to justify that answer. It has been written primarily to show that history as one whole is amenable to a more broad and comprehensive handling than is the history of special nations and periods, a broader handling v -Friedrich Ratzel. Vissza