Chris Harman: A People's History of the World Bookmarks Publications, £15.99.
Chris Harman's book is of tremendous value to all socialists. nearly 700 pages he gives a wide ranging picture of the develop• ment of human societies from the carliest times up to tae present day Harman's work is a thoroughly Marxist interpretation, basing itscil on the methods of historical materialism in the Communist Manifesto, continuing the analysis of Marx and Engels for a further 150 years. The title of Harman's book reminded me of A.L. Morton's A People's History of England. Harman, however, avoids the vulgar interpretations of Marxism and the times emerge in this latter work. He understands the importance of ideology and the battle for ideas. He devotes chapters to the rise of Christianity and of Islam, pay. ing serious attention to ideological and theo. logical disputes within these religions. He also recognises the importance of art and culture within human development: numerous writers, painters and musicians make an appearance, as Chris tries to set their works within the context of the changing nature of the societies they inhabit. A People's History of the World is a serious piece of academic scholarship. Harman makes use of the best available historiography, even when written by non-Marxists. For example, the important contributions to our understanding of feudalism by Marc Bloch and Georges Duby are freely admitted. Chris is clearly aware of the writings of Cyril Mango, a leading scholar of Byzantium, and of Fernand Braudel. Numerous Biblical references show a serious attitude to his interpretation of Christianity.
Avoiding Euro-centrism T he greatest strength of Harman's work is that he avoids the kuro centric approach all too typical of western writers, Marxist and non Marxist. He devotes considerable space to examining social, economic and political developments China, Persia, South and Central America, Africa and the Arab world. He shows that by comparison Europe remained an extremely backward region, on the fringes of the Eurasian land mass, until less than one thousand years ago.
When Harman does turn to European history he deals seriously with some aspects that have long been ignored or forgotten in Marxist writings. His explanation of the causes of the Thirty Years War and its importance for Europcan political development is possibly the best i have ever read.
Harman's chapter on Jacobinism outside France is also outstanding, demonstrating how the ideas of the French Revolution could rapidly spread beyond the boundaries of France - indeed, even of Burope, as sections on Haiti and Latin America make clear.
He is also very clear that capitalism produced modern slavery and, associated with it, racism - rather than the other way Because Harman's work is of such vast soone he has cleariy had to make hard choices about what to exclude. Everyone will no doubt have suggestions for topics that could have been included.
Inevitably there are also interpretations within the book with which I would disagree - though many may simply be the product of the necessary simplificaGon Haruan has nao to maxe Chris recognises, for examlion to the development In of Dante - but fails to point out that in order to justify his use of the vernacular Dante had to write his major work on the subject (De Vulgari Eloquentia) in Latin. Chris also neglects the political conwritings. The simply a religious work, it is also highly political - a fact that has not escaped the notice of virtually every right-wing morerious use has frequently been made of Dante's writings to justify revanchism, imperial delusions and oppression of the Slav population of Istria.
Some disagreements are patently obvious: the theory of State Capitalism to explain the rise of Stalinism or the analysis of the breakup of Yugoslavia are areas where Socialist Worker and Socialist Outlook have long standing dierences a nere is arte point wa teh crating them. I will confine criticisms to a few areas.
While Martin Luther King is given a mention, Malcolm X is completely absent. This seems to me an astonishing omission, given that it is only a few years since the SWP was organising meetings about Malcolm in every pace tcy navc members. Harman's analysis of the Second World War is markedly inferior to that of Ernest India, Mandel, who understood that this conflict contained within it a whole series of different wars, some of which Marxists supported as progressive, others they opposed as impe. rialist. In fairness, however, Mandel devel. oped his analysis in a whole book (The Meaning of the Second World War) whereas Chris has only a chapter in which to outline his views.
Christianity
A has already Harman underestimates the importance of the adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman empire for its growth. I would go further.
Although Chris shows how, once established, the Christian hierarchy rapidly began to suppress dissenters within its own ranks, he underestimates the level of intolerance in Christianity even before it became Christianity never wanted tolerance, or • cica party, within Koman society. It wanted the suppression of all non-Christian relisions. since it saw itselt as having a monopoly of truth. This extended beyond the theological field to cover many areas of Roman life.
in toe caresuan world view A •mention of the first country years before Switzerland. s noted above Chris devotes a chapter to the rise of Christianity. Robin Blackburn, in a friendly review in International Socialism, suggested conservative National Party. years ago.
Conflict. Christians fight Muslims at Ascalon in 1099: which side toas the most cager to be martyrs? For exampic, the baths of Rome and other cities were seen as immoral and Christians demanded their closure. This hardly endeared them to large sections of Roman Moreover, many Christians deliberately invited persecution, fuelled both by their own moral certainty and a desire to be with God in heaven. This latter desire sometimes finds a reflection today amongst some groups of Islamic militants but it originated Missing continent Ithough Chris's work is decidedly non-Euro centric, he virtually Australasia. Hence there is no New Zealand being exceptions). which women won the right to vote on equal terms - in 1893, over 30 years before T Britain, half a century before France and over Nor is there any analysis of why the Australian labour movement began to form their own party over a decade before similar developments in Britain. The Labor Party was in government (admittedly in coalition) as early as 1891 in New South Wales.
Nor does Chris consider why opposition to nuclear weapons is supported by virtually every party in New Zealand, including the In fact the small amount he docs write about Australasia is somewhat confusing. His single reference to the spread of the Polynesians to Easter Island and New Zealand (p.15) is in the chapter on the Neolithic Revolution'. The Maort did not reach Aotearoa until about one thousand What is missing, moreover, is a recognition of the scale of this achievement. The Polynesians were clearly able to navigate vast distances across the Paciic and commulow, since they arrived in several waves. They are not all descendents of the passengers in a single boat that arrived in Aotearoa Yet 500 years after the arrival of the Maor in Aotearoa, European sailors still tended to hug the shores of the Mediterranean rather than risk open water. Chris also ignores Maori struggles against imperial rule, though this is hardly surprising as, unal very recally, tacy nave crack been totally ignored in both New Zealand and Britain or, if mentioned, grossly disIt is only bocause I recently visited New Zealand that I became aware of the important work of James Belich The New Zealand Wars and the Victorian Interpretation of Racial Harman's claim (p.449) that nineteenth century rebellions against colonial rule were attempts to reinstitute the sort of societies that nad given way to maperatism is only partly true in the The 1845-46 Northern War certainly included clements of this: Maori leaders Hone Heke and Kawiti attempted to uphold the rights of Maori chiefs against attempts by representatives of the British gorernment to impose is authority. But this was not entirely the case in the 1860s where those who fought the British were beginning to develop a going beyond tribal identifi. kupapa, those Maori who fought alongside imperial and colonial troops, who wanted to preserve old trbal structures and who saw and colonial struggles as a threat to their positions and privileges.
Moreover, anti-British Maori did not fight on racial grounds, They usually made a dis tinction between the Pakcha (European setters) and the British government: they did not seck to expel white settlers.
The British army was, in fact, unable to defeat Maori resistance despite massive superiority in numbers (at least five-to-one, often much greater) and was withdrawn: a not insignificant achievement for part-time warriors, who frequently had to abandon campaigns to work on their land.
Maori resistance was finally defeated primarily by other Maori - who often fought for their own ends rather than those of the colonial rulers. Maori resistance continued, sporadically, until 1916 - the year of the Easter rebellion in Ireland which Chris sees as the hrst or the modern natsonal strusics.
One of the reasons the Maori were able to resist so long was their superb grasp of military matters- a subject that Marxists tend to ignore (Engels and Trotsky are notable Vulnerable hey understood they were unable combat, even though that was their traditional method of warfare. I ney aiso cansco that tradi tional pa (forts) were vulnerable to being surrounded or. since many were on the coast. at risk from naval bombardment.
They therefore developed new types of pa with elaborate systems of trenches and underground anti-artillery bunkers. This important Maori contribution to military strategy developed, seventy years later, into the horrors of the Western Front, though with an important difference.
The Maori designed their modern pa to allow them to withdraw when they could no longer ensils be held: "civilised Kuropeans inflicted slaughter on one another for four years tatact than code an inch of ground.
These criticisms are not meant in any negative way. Hopefully, if Chris decides to update his work, he will incorporate them. In my view they would make what is an already very impressive book even better.
OUTLOOK monthly marxist review. No 35. June 2000. 50p