Foreword
David M. Kennedy
TO STUDY THE HISTORY OF HUMAN LIFE and human societies is to study change. If there were no change, our understanding of any given moment in time would yield the key to understanding all moments in time. History as a method of inquiry would then resemble science, whose central quest is to elucidate the constants of the physical world that constitute the “laws” of nature. History, like science, would then have predictive value—although making predictions about humanity’s future in a world without change would be a decidedly no-sweat matter of “same ol’, same ol’,” hardly requiring powerful analytical chops.
But history knows no such laws, and historians no such sinecure. The objects of historical analysis, by their very ...
Get The Autonomous Revolution now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
