[Fogel's] newest book reviewed below essentially > makes the same kinds > of arguments made by Brad DeLong and the Furedi > sect-cult in various > venues. It states that capitalism unleashes the > power of technology, > which leads to the gradual improvement of all our > lives.
Didn't Marx say the same thing? With more recogniztion of the down side of course. All that is > needed is a little touching up around the edges. > Questions of war and > enviromental despoliation would not seem to enter > the equation, based at > least on McNeill's review. Obviously Marx thought that more than a touch up was necessary, and he paid some attention to war, less to evnirionmental despoilation. But he did insist that capitalism brought immense material progress. To give the NY Review of > Books some credit, > McNeill is an interesting person to take on this > Pangloss. As one of the > authors criticized by Jim Blaut in "8 Eurocentric > Historians," McNeill > is by no means perfect. I never understood your enthusiasm for that book. Blaut seems to say (1) these authors don't recognize that capitalism is utterly evil and without redeeming value, and (b) they are racists because they don't recognoze that other cultures that are not European invented capitalism independently of the Europeans. If (1) is true, why is (2) supposed to be to the credit of the nonEuropeans? jks However, he does understand > that capitalism is a > mixed blessing and that the enviroment is not > infinitely malleable.) OK, at least we are on the same page as far as it's being at least a mixed blessing goes, in terms of MArxist analysis. jks > > NY Review of Books > Volume 51, Number 16 � October 21, 2004 > > Review > Bigger and Better? > By William H. McNeill > > The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, > 1700�2100:Europe, America, > and the Third World > by Robert William Fogel > Cambridge University Press, 191 pp., $70.00; $23.99 > (paper) > > The Escape from Hunger is an important book by the > Nobel economist > Robert Fogel. The first three chapters offer a > novel, tightly > constructed, and convincing argument for a > distinctively human form of > what Fogel calls "technophysio evolution," described > as "biological but > not genetic, rapid, culturally transmitted, and not > necessarily stable." > At first blush, biological evolution that is not > genetic may sound > surprising, but it rests on firm and quantitative > evidence, as he explains: > > The theory of technophysio evolution rests on the > proposition that > during the past 300 years, particularly during the > past century, human > beings have gained an unprecedented degree of > control over their > environment.... This new degree of control has > enabled Homo sapiens to > increase its average body size by over 50 percent > and its average > longevity by more than 100 percent since 1800, and > to greatly improve > the robustness and capacity of vital organ systems. > The two concluding chapters of the book are also > surprising and boldly > speculative since Fogel devotes them to an > assessment of prospects for > further technophysio evolution across the next > hundred years, and > explores the economic and social implications of > making health care "the > growth industry of the twenty-first century." > > No one can deny that the human record in the > twentieth century was > indeed extraordinary. For in spite of all the wars, > massacres, and > famines that figure in the conventional history of > that century, human > numbers quadrupled, and most people consumed more > and suffered less > deprivation than before. This is what Fogel > undertakes to demonstrate > statistically by applying an economist's habits of > mind to recent > biological, physiological, and thermodynamic > transformations of the > human work engine, our bodies. This ambitious > enterprise deserves both > admiration and careful scrutiny. > > (clip) > > What are we to make of Fogel's marriage of > economics, nutrition, > physiology, and prophecy? I will begin with > prophecy, for when looking > ahead, my views are firm and darkly familiar. > Consequently, his rosy > vision of what is likely to happen in the > twenty-first century seems > unlikely to me. Surely warfare and a struggle for > security against > enemies at home and abroad are far more plausible > "growth industries" in > the United States than lifelong education and health > care; and if they > continue to increase, their share of GNP may be > expected to reverse the > worldwide technophysio evolution that Fogel > celebrates. Human societies > have often been ravaged and impoverished by war; and > mighty governments > have sometimes collapsed when violence became > unsupportable. Such a > future for the United States seems possible, even > probable, despite > expanding popular demands for health care. > > A second source of instability in human affairs is > demographic and stems > from the breakdown of traditional village > communities among the majority > of the world's population. Like the nutritional and > physiological > changes Fogel describes so convincingly, this change > is recent and > profound. One result is the decay of long-standing > patterns of nurture > whereby, as they grew up, youths acquired the full > array of adult skills > and moral expectations needed to carry on local > practices and reproduce > their kind, generation after generation. Ever since > neolithic times, > villages were the places where the very large > majority (about 85 percent > to 95 percent) of human beings lived and died, and > the survival of > villages was what allowed cities and states to > regenerate after local > disasters. That means in turn that recent imperfect > absorption of > village communities into urban-based social networks > puts social and > cultural continuity at risk as never before. > > For the basic fact is that sanitary and educational > reforms of the > nineteenth century did not make cities hospitable to > child raising; and > birth control pills now allow adults to indulge > their sexual impulses > without giving birth to unwanted children. As a > result, in rich, > urbanized countries human beings are no longer > reproducing themselves. > Maintenance of existing cities therefore requires > immigration from > increasingly distant rural reservoirs. Yet worldwide > population growth > is fading rapidly as village communities wither, > while the ancient bane > of urban life, germs that cause infectious diseases, > are acquiring > resistances to antibiotics that once promised to > make infections readily > curable. By mid-century, therefore, it seems pretty > sure to me that > declining populations will prevail worldwide, and > the biological and > cultural continuity of human societies will come > into question as never > before. > > Deliberate public action almost certainly will alter > the course of this > prospective demographic collapse; and, to be a bit > more cheerful, > warfare may also wane among increasingly geriatric > urbanized > populations. But the impact of such responses > remains wholly > unforeseeable and so is the future of our general > encounter with the > organic environment, which sustained the growth of > food production since > === message truncated === _______________________________ Do you Yahoo!? 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