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Rating: 
Summary: Yes, if you can read only one book, read this one.
Review: I agree with the reader below. So I would only add some more recommendations to read: "The world economy. A millennial perspective" by Angus Maddison; "Power and privilege: A theory of social stratification" by Gerhard Emmanuel Lenski; "The History of Government" by S.E. Finer; "World History. A new perspective" by Clive Ponting; and "The Phenomenon of Religion", by Moojan Momen.
Rating:
Summary: If you only read one history book...Read This.
Review: Though I am a history major and major history buff, this
outstanding book has taught me a great deal. Outside
of Economic History (Landes, Mokyr, Bairoch, Jones) there
is a depressing lack of works on long-term, integrative
history-perched at a level that the average educated reader
can understand. Pre-Industrial Societies fills that gap
admirably. It is highly informative and extremely well
written. A brief overview: Pre-Industrial Societies explains how human
society in most of the world (primarily Eurasia) was organized
during the last 4800 of 5000 years-a pretty long time.
That is to say, most of what we refer to as 'History'.
What is unique about Crone's book is that it gives the reader
a *complete* picture of 'The World We Have Lost'.
I would not want to spoil things for the potential reader,
but among many other things she points out how
the Franciscans (or Sufis for that matter) made
excellent use of social 'dropouts', whereas modern hippies provide society with 'mere nuisance value'! Pre-Industrial Societies was part of a series of
historical books(hence the un-sexy title);
the other books were not nearly as good.
Aside from Bill McNeill and David Landes,
I know of no other living historian as talented as Crone;
all three share excellent historical skills and
Macaulay-like writting ability. Put these things together
and a great book is practically guaranteed...
Rating:
Summary: If you only read one history book...Read This.
Review: Though I am a history major and major history buff, this
outstanding book has taught me a great deal. Outside
of Economic History (Landes, Mokyr, Bairoch, Jones) there
is a depressing lack of works on long-term, integrative
history-perched at a level that the average educated reader
can understand. Pre-Industrial Societies fills that gap
admirably. It is highly informative and extremely well
written. A brief overview: Pre-Industrial Societies explains how human
society in most of the world (primarily Eurasia) was organized
during the last 4800 of 5000 years-a pretty long time.
That is to say, most of what we refer to as 'History'.
What is unique about Crone's book is that it gives the reader
a *complete* picture of 'The World We Have Lost'.
I would not want to spoil things for the potential reader,
but among many other things she points out how
the Franciscans (or Sufis for that matter) made
excellent use of social 'dropouts', whereas modern hippies provide society with 'mere nuisance value'! Pre-Industrial Societies was part of a series of
historical books(hence the un-sexy title);
the other books were not nearly as good.
Aside from Bill McNeill and David Landes,
I know of no other living historian as talented as Crone;
all three share excellent historical skills and
Macaulay-like writting ability. Put these things together
and a great book is practically guaranteed...
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