The Paths of History

by Igor M. Diakonoff

This is a broad and ambitious study of the entire history of humanity that takes as its point of departure Marx's theory of social evolution. Professor Diakonoff's theory of world history differs from Marx's in a number of ways. First, he has expanded Marx's five stages of development to eight. Second, he denies that social evolution necessarily implies progress and shows how "each progress is simultaneously a regress," and third, he demonstrates that the transition from one stage to another is not necessarily marked by social conflict and that sometimes this is achieved peacefully and gracefully. As the book moves through these various stages, the reader is drawn into a remarkable and thought-provoking study of the process of the history of the human race that focuses on the wide range of factors (economic, social, military-technological, and socio-pyschological) that have influenced our development from palaeolithic times to the present day.

Genres: History

368 pages, Paperback

First published August 25, 1995

About the author

Igor Mikhailovich Diakonoff (Russian: И́горь Миха́йлович Дья́конов) was a Russian historian, linguist, and translator and a renowned expert on the Ancient Near East and its languages. His last name is occasionally spelled Diakonov. His brothers were also distinguished historians.

Diakonoff was brought up in Norway. He graduated from Leningrad University in 1938. In the same year he joined the staff of the Hermitage Museum in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). In 1949 he published a comprehensive study of Assyria, followed in 1956 by a monograph on Medea. Later on, he teamed up with the linguist Sergei Starostin to produce authoritative studies of the Caucasian, Afro-Asiatic, and Hurro-Urartian language families.

Diakonoff was honored in 2003 with a volume published in his memory, edited by Lionel Bender, Gábor Takács, and David Appleyard. In addition to articles on Afro-Asiatic languages, it contains a five-page list of his publications compiled by Takács [...]

Reviews

[Okan Ergul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meraklilarina dolu dolu tarih okuma keyfi veren bir çalisma...

[Davahkal]

good

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.825/5