The Undivided Past: Humanity Beyond Our Differences

Sir David Cannadine (history, Princeton Univ.; The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy), an acclaimed historian of 19th- and early 20th-century British society and economic life, tackles the now rare form of grand world history and world intellectual history in arguing that the total record of humankind displays more solidarity than conflict. He draws on an exhaustive list of classics and historiographical landmarks—many written by his professional friends from across the ideological spectrum—to posit that all of the major categorizations of society—religion, nation, class, gender, race, and civilization—are typically regarded as struggles against the Other, but that a long-view analysis shows these (overlapping) contests for hegemony resolving themselves into practical accommodation. His antipathy to class as a valid concept is particularly conspicuous, as is his ambivalence about the relevance and utility of the nation-state.