The Development of Cities

[eugene]

I may be wrong, but I am reading this as a will and circumstance type of question. If so, I don't think this type of thinking is really "modern." The ancients had there own "excuse factory," in divine intervention. "We lost it because God willed it," and that type of thing. Even the winners liked the idea. Alexander the Great claimed to be more than merely human. God has punished the nation of Israel. The city of Rome may fall, but God's love endureth forever.

China by tradition took the "sociological" view of things and deliberately downgraded the military class.

I guess what I am reading here is the military historian's lament. Professional history has down graded both military and politics in favor of some of the things derided here. I would explain that by the rise of an Industrial Society. In an industrial society population, disease the weather etc. all are important considerations. We even need to pay attention to (OMG!) the things that women contribute to society. Modern states, and modern historians pay attention to these things for good reason.

I think history is about change. The world changed more in the period 1750 to 1950 than it changed in the 2 millenia that proceeded. It changed less because of men with guns and more because of men with ledger sheets and wrenches. Andrew Ure rightly called the leaders of the industrial revolution the "Napoleon's of Industry."