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Search - World Power And Evolution

World Power And Evolution
Author: Ellsworth Huntington

TO R. B. H. WHOSE SUGGESTIONS DOT THE PAGES OF THIS BOOK PREFACE EVERY Important aspect of human knowledge must be con sidered in its relation to both space and time. In Civilization and Climate 59 the problem of the effect of physical environment upon human progress was discussed in its relation to space. It was shown that the distribution of c... more »iviliza tion upon the earths surface is closely in harmony with the dis tribution of climatic energy, which appears to be the most important factor in physical environment. In the present volume the same problem is considered in its relation to time. Beginning with the present day we find that from year to year business activities vary in extraordinary harmony with health. Further study shows that variations in health from year to year depend upon the weather far more than upon any other single factor. Turning to the distant past we find that from the earliest geo logical times the evolution of mans ancestors, even before they had assumed the form of man, was largely guided by climatic environment. This was especially true of mental evolution. Periods of climatic stress not merely weeded out old types, but apparently caused new types or mutants to arise, so that new species and races came into existence. In historical times the same extraordinarily close relationship between the air that men breathe and the deeds that they do is apparent. Rome furnishes a striking example. Turkey is today one of the worlds most puzzling problems partly because of the economic, physiological, and political conditions arising from the uninvigorating climate and the arid summers. Germany, in like manner, was able to defy the world largely because no other country has so many people 8 PREFACE who live under a highly energizing climate and are also under a single government. Some readers may feel that the importance of environment is exaggerated in this book. That will be largely because they do not attach as much weight as does the author to the qualifying phrases which he has used. A few generations ago the emphasis was all upon the various agencies which combine to furnish train ing. In a broad sense these include the Church, the Home, the School, the State, and other institutions. Recently tremendous emphasis has justly been given to another factor, namely, heredity. We are told that heredity plays nine parts and training one in determining what a mans character shall be. According to such an extreme view physical environment is scarcely worthy of mention. Yet training, heredity, and physical environment are like food, drink, and air. One or another of these may be placed first according to the individual preferences, and one or another may demand more attention according to circumstances. It is idle, however, to say that one is any more important than the others. All are essential. Until the world learns this vital lesson, it will be necessary that some students should lay special stress upon heredity because its importance is not as yet so fully recognized as is that of training. Other students must lay still greater stress upon physical environment because its importance is still less appreciated. When the world realizes that the human race must be bred as carefully as race horses, and that even when people inherit perfect constitutions their health must receive as much care as does that of consumptives, it will be time for a book in which training, heredity, and environment receive exactly equal emphasis. Part of the material here used has already been published in the Journal of Race Development and in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, but most is new. In writing this book, many sources have been drawn upon, some of which are acknowledged in the list of references in the Appendix. The author has also drawn PREFACE 9 on many sources which cannot be thus acknowledged...

ISBN-13: 9781406777185
ISBN-10: 1406777188
Publication Date: 3/15/2007
Pages: 284
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Malinowski Press
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
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