cover image Plough, Sword, and Book: The Structure of Human History

Plough, Sword, and Book: The Structure of Human History

Ernest Gellner. University of Chicago Press, $27.5 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-226-28702-7

Dividing world history into three phases (hunting/gathering, agriculture and industry), this study asserts that most agrarian civilizations are too self-limiting for the leap into capitalism and a market economy. ``Gellner's ambitious theory smacks of Eurocentric hubris, and . . . his prose is turgid and portentous,'' chided PW. (Jan.)