The Agricultural Age: The Achievements and Limitations of Several Millennia of World History

Here’s a clear challenge, closely linked to the problems with the concept of modernization discussed in the Preface: how can common features of major societies in the Agricultural Age be identified without blurring crucial regional and chronological differences into an overly simple sense of “traditional society”? For if we detach “traditional” features from the variety of actual social contexts, we will also distort the later treatment of industrial changes and their relationship to regional patterns and identities.