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Published: August 5, 2017
Tags:  History · Oligarchy



The book in...
One sentence:
An extensive walk through, mostly western, civilization from the 17th century until the late 20th century with a little background from the ancient past and some projections into to the future.

Five sentences:
It begins with a look at the ancient and less recent history of both the west and east. Next there is a long and extremely interesting discussion of economics where the different phases, ranging from very local to global, of economic systems are outlined. Once the more modern economic system is understood if allows for the exploration of economic and media controlled manipulation of nations, specifically the Round Table group and its most prominent member Cecil Rhodes. This manipulation gives great insight into the world wars and depressions as being not failures of organization but were rather the foundations the new, technocratic, age would be built upon. Finally this technocratic world and some of its main features, like Weiner's cybernetics and Shannon's communication theory, are shown to be the true forces, thrust on the world by war, that have been the driving force behind all of the technological changes the world is still undergoing 50+ years after this book was first published.

designates my notes. / designates important.


Thoughts

My five sentence synopsis can not do the depth of this book, at over 1100 pages, justice.

This was one of, if not the, best books I have ever read. It is easy to read while still digging into the issues it attempts to cover. The minutia of detail is sometimes overwhelming, the production numbers for the world wars for example, but are valid since they offer hard numbers as evidence for those that are looking for that.

Initially turned on to the book by John Taylor Gatto, I came in looking for details surrounding economic changes, education changes, Cecil Rhodes, the Round Table, and media manipulation. I was not disappointed. There is extensive coverage of each of these, often with the names and dates to accompany each claim that allow for further investigation.

Most of these conspiracies are born of economic roots. In several sections the evolution of economies are covered in great detail. By exploring each of the phases of this capitalist evolution, commercial, industrial, financial, monopolist, and pluralist, you can see a common thread through the ages that allows things like media manipulation and the fomenting of war to be controlled by a select group of individuals from their positions within influential organizations - primarily banks and sufficiently capitalized organizations.

The world wars and depressions are covered in great detail and are shown as turning points of cultural change. It is my opinion that these wars, specifically WW2 through the duplicitous Versailles Treaty, were concocted to usher in a new world order based on technocracy and division based in pleasure, ignorance and diversity. There is supporting coverage, although not as extensive, in how things like communication theory, cybernetics and similar technologies, spring forth from World War 2, were used as foundational concepts in the shaping of what Quigly calls the new age.

While this book is long and daunting, it truly is a must read for anyone wanting to understand where Western civilization has come from and where it might be headed. Though it is a bit dated since its 1966 publication, it is still timely enough to allow it to be compared with where we are as a society today and to see how the thread of manipulation and control persists. For more current works that expand on this idea of a new age, Zbigniew Brzezinski’s works are a good place to start.

As a final caveat, make sure to remember that Quigly himself was an “insider”. He proclaims his agreement for the manipulation and coercion documented within these pages, and so one must keep this bias in mind when reading. Also worth mentioning is that Quigly was a mentor to Rhodes Scholar William (Bill) Clinton. This, I think, adds even more credibility to the fact that Rhodes' Round Table group so often mentioned herein is still manipulating the world and it would be fool-hearted to think this book is the final word on anything nor is it free from manipulatory techniques.



Exceptional Excepts


Table of Contents

· Preface

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· Chapter 1: Introduction: Western Civilization in its Worldsetting

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1. Mixture, 350-700 
2. Gestation, 700-970 
3A. First Expansion, 970-1270 
4A.First Conflict, 1270-1440 Core Empire: England, 1420
3B. Second Expansion, 1440-1690 
4B. Second Conflict, 1690-1815 Core Empire: France, 1810 3C. Third Expansion, 1770-1929 
4C. Third Conflict, 1893-? Core Empire: Germany, 1942
REORGANIZATION 
3D. Fourth Expansion, 1944-
CONTINUATION OF THE PROCESS 
5. Universal Empire (the United States) 
6. Decay 
7. Invasion (end of the civilization)
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  1. governments did dare to, and could, oppress their peoples, who could do little to prevent it.
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· Chapter 2: Western Civilization to 1914

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· Chapter 3: The Russian Empire to 1917

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-The nihilists were completely atheist, materialist, irrational, doctrinaire, despotic, and violent.

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· Chapter 4: The Buffer Fringe

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  1. On the latter occasion he solemnly promised his friendship to “the Sultan Abdul Hamid and the three hundred million Muhammadans who revere him as caliph.” Most important, perhaps, was the projected “Berlin to Baghdad” railway scheme which completed its main trunk line from the Austro-Hungarian border to Nusaybin in northern Mesopotamia by September 1918. This project was of the greatest economic, strategic, and political importance not only to the Ottoman Empire and the Near East but to the whole of Europe. Economically, it tapped a region of great mineral and agricul- tural resources, including the world’s greatest petroleum reserves. These were brought into contact with Constantinople and, beyond that, with central and northwestern Europe. Germany, which was industrialized late, had a great, unsatisfied demand for food and raw materials and a great capacity to manufacture industrial products which could be ex- ported to pay for such food and raw materials.
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1. The collapse of the imperial regime, to 1911 2. The failure of the Republic,
1911-1920 3. The struggle with warlordism, 1920-1941 a. Efforts to obtain
support abroad, 1920-1927 b. Efforts to obtain support from the propertied
groups, 1927-1941 4. The struggle with Japan, 1931-1945 5. The authoritarian
triumph, 1945-
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· Chapter 5: The First World War 1914-1918

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· Chapter 6: The Versailles System and the Return to “Normalcy” 1919-1929

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· Chapter 7: Finance, Commercial Policy, and Business Activity, 1897-1947

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· Chapter 8: International Socialism and the Soviet Challenge

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· Chapter 9: Germany from Kaiser to Hitler, 1913-1945

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· Chapter 10: Britain: the Background To Appeasement, 1900-1939

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· Chapter 11: Changing Economic Patterns

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· Chapter 12: The Policy of Appeasement, 1931-1936

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competitor, Suzuki Company of Kobe, precipitated a financial panic which closed most of the banks in Japan.

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· Chapter 13: The Disruption of Europe, 1937-1939

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· Chapter 14: World War II: The Tide of Aggression, 1939-1941

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· Chapter 15: World War II: The Ebb of Aggression, 1941-1945

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· Chapter 16: The New Age

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  1. Even today American “security” agents are trying to keep secret these facts which have been fully explained in easily available technical publications.
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· Chapter 17: Nuclear Rivalry and the Cold War: American Atomic Supremacy, 1945-1950

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· Chapter 18: Nuclear Rivalry and the Cold War: The Race for the H-Bomb, 1950-1957

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· Chapter 19: The New Era, 1957-1964

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· Chapter 20: Tragedy and Hope: The Future in Perspective

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