The Human Web: A Bird's-Eye View of World History

Canadian American historian William H. McNeill (1917-2016) was best known for launching the field of world history and proposing an expansive view of the history of human civilization that emphasized cross-cultural exchange and connections. He earned his BA and MA at the University of Chicago and his PhD at Cornell University. McNeill was the Robert A. Millikan Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Chicago from 1947 to 1987 and chaired the Department of History from 1961 to 1967. In addition to being elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, McNeill served as president of the American Historical Association and was awarded the Erasmus Prize and the National Humanities Medal.

While McNeill has authored numerous books, his most notable work is The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community, published in 1963. It traces the history of civilizations over 5,000 years and is the text to which the Preface of The Human Web alludes (xvii). The Rise of the West stands out for equally covering Eastern and Western civilizations as well as developments in Africa, Oceania, and pre-Columbian America at a time when historical study was narrowly focused on Europe and its colonies. McNeill proposed that the history of civilization was a history of constant change and cultural diffusion, and he attributed Europe’s prominence in the global order to an instability that inspired dynamism and overrode the traditionalism of Eastern civilizations. This perspective of cross-cultural exchange and influence, as well as the explanation of reasons underlying Europe’s preeminence after 1500, endure in The Human Web.

McNeill’s other notable texts include Plagues and Peoples (1976), The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A.D. 1000 (1982), and Keeping Together in Time: Dance and Drill in Human History (1995). All of these works revolve around subjects that appear in The Human Web. Additionally, McNeill authored Arnold J. Toynbee: A Life (1989), which is a biography of his mentor, from whom he distinguished himself by presenting the cross-cultural influence and interconnectedness thesis.

Also known as Siddhartha Gautama, Gautama Buddha (c. 563 BCE-483 BCE), was a religious teacher who renounced his royal lineage in order to live as a wandering ascetic and attain nirvana. He built a monastic order in India and taught his followers to lead a life characterized by the middle point between sensual indulgence and severe asceticism in order to train the mind away from ignorance, craving, and suffering, ultimately ending the cycle of rebirth. The authors introduce Buddha in Part 3 when discussing the distinctive traits of Indian civilization, one of which was “the deference accorded to ascetics” (63). The authors write, “The ascetic lifestyle achieved a lasting institutional definition among the followers of Gautama Buddha [...] whose monastic communities subsequently propagated themselves across South and East Asia” (63-64). Accordingly, Buddha is a key figure because Buddhism is one of the four major portable, congregational religions that play a role in expanding and tightening the Old World Web. The text’s attention to Buddhism, its spread, its role in driving the development of China’s market society, and its influence on Christianity and Islam is one of the many ways that the authors transcend Eurocentrism in their presentation of human history.