Civilizing Process 2e

The work is a marvel of creative scholarship. Its organization and style unsurpassed. I would recommend it to anybody interested in the evolution of society and cultural history.

We live our everyday lives shrouded in monotony, going about our business as if our existence was the most natural and unquestionable one, yet what our souls call "home" has actually been created in an extremely complex and all-encompassing process sometimes called Civilization. In this very ambitious book, Norbert Elias examines both how our consciousness has been transformed by society, and how society itself has progressed as a result; that is, what mechanisms have propelled the transformation of our Western civilization from a violent and unrepressed, autarkic existence, to our infinitely interdependent, specialized and pacified modern nation-states. By way of detailed analysis of historical documents, the author lets us explore how inter-personal relations have been transformed through the course of Western history, how our manners and behavior have been modelled by a changing environment, and in turn modified it, as illustrated by the most diverse situations like table manners, attitudes toward those of an inferior social standing, hygiene, and sexuality. It is like glancing at our collective youth, oddly familiar and intimate, yet repulsive. Elias then meticulously articulates by what forces feudalism eventually gave rise to ever more centralized and interdependent forms of government, and the corresponding specific changes in human behavior and attitudes, that are the cause, as much as the consequence, of such changes. A couple of interesting ideas in this book specially relevant to current debate: how society's transformation isn't the design of anyone or a "conspiration" of sorts, but a process that obeys its own laws; how our form of government is very deeply dependent on all classes and peoples, thus enjoying very little freedom for gratuitous action; and how war isn't necessarily the opposite of peace, but the opportunity for ever larger zones of pacification to emerge. All good lessons to re-learn today, specially by the Left, with its visions of evil conspiracies and its stubborn insistence on perpetuating strife and conflict by opposing lasting resolution by means of war.

This is one of the most important books I have ever read. Norbert Elias ingeniously and persuasively provides a way to understand the evolution of Western societies and personalities from the Twelfth Century to our own time.He provides an organizing principle for understanding how and why life and people were different in different periods of Western history. Until I read Elias I could only guess at what life was like in earlier eras by inferring from social, economic, and technical conditions. Elias provides a clear and reasonable way to look much closer. I strongly recommend this book.