William H. McNeill's seminal book The Rise of the West: A History of the
Human Community (1963) received the National Book Award in 1964 and was
later named one of the 100 best nonfiction books of the twentieth
century by the Modern Library. From his post at the University of
Chicago, McNeill became one of the first contemporary North American
historians to write world history, seeking a broader interpretation of
human affairs than prevailed in his youth. This candid, intellectual
memoir from one of the most famous and influential historians of our
era, The Pursuit of Truth charts the development of McNeill's thinking
and writing over seven decades. At the core of his worldview is the
belief that historical truth does not derive exclusively from
criticizing, paraphrasing, and summarizing written documents, nor is
history merely a record of how human intentions and plans succeeded or
failed. Instead, McNeill believes that human lives are immersed in vast
overarching processes of change. Ecological circumstances frame and
limit human action, while in turn humans have been able to alter their
environment more and more radically as technological skill and knowledge
increased. McNeill believes that the human adventure on earth is unique,
and that it rests on an unmatched system of communication. The web of
human communication, whether spoken, written, or digital, has fostered
both voluntary and involuntary cooperation and sustained behavioral
changes, permitting a single species to spread over an entire planet and
to alter terrestrial flows of energy and ideas to an extraordinary
degree. Over the course of his career as a historian, teacher, and
mentor, McNeill expounded the range of history and integrated it into an
evolutionary worldview uniting physical, biological, and intellectual
processes. Accordingly, The Pursuit of Truth explores the personal and
professional life of a man who affected the way a core academic
discipline has been taught and understood in America.
