Universal Patterns of History

by David Maurer

Whatever else history may be, it is first and foremost a story. This paper will tell the story of the evolution of the primary patterns of human societies, and their most important variations. We will start at the beginning and continue through to the present. The individual characters of history are important, but they are very well covered elsewhere. This story will focus on the mechanics of political, economic, family, religious, and military institutions. We will see how these different components work together, change, and evolve. As that happens, new kinds of societies will evolve along with them. At no time in history has this process of evolutionary and revolutionary social change happened faster than right now. The current revolutionary events in the Arab world are part of this process. They will be explained and placed within the context of the world-wide development of fully-modern democratic-market society.

104 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 12, 2011