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age of David and Solomon. Continued contraction of the upper class
upon itself. Concentration of property and of economic power in rela-
tively fewer and fewer hands. Evolution of prophecy, or forthspeaking
on behalf of the divine. Dramatic role of prophecy in this history. The
opinion of the majority of the people that Yahweh had deserted them.
Startling claim of the minority, as voiced by the prophets, that Israel's
troubles were the issue of Israel's own unfaithfulness to the contract with
Yahweh at Mount Sinai. Yahweh had raised Israel to glory in former
times, and conquered every god with whom his chosen people came
in contact. But Israel had served the gods of other nations as well as
the baalim of the Canaanites, the "former inhabitants of the country,"
who were now asserted by tradition to have been driven out by Yahweh.
The great Elijah, or Eli-yah, who declared that Yahweh was the only
"el," or god, for Israel to serve. Marriage of King Ahab of the northern
kingdom with Jezebel of Tyre. Alliance with Tyre; and erection of
altars to the Tyrian baal. Alliance of Judah and Tyre. Bloody revolu-
tions of Jehu and Jehoash in both Israelite kingdoms, whereby worship
of the Tyrian god was put down, and his votaries were killed in accordance
with the program of Elijah, who desired Israel to "return" to Yahweh.
Jehonadab, the upper-class Kenite Rechabite, who came in from his
home in the rural districts at the time of the revolution of Jehu, to
associate with the usurping king and see his "zeal" for Yahweh. Soci-
ological basis for the assimilation of "righteousness" with the worship
of the national god of Israel. The claims and program of prophecy
formulated in the rural districts. Elijah a rustic. Elisha, his disciple,
called from the plow handles. Amos a herdsman. Micah a resident of a
country village in the Shephelah. But in the person of Isaiah, prophecy
at length follows the line of the kingship, and enters the city, to remain
at the center of the social problem to the last. The reaction between
country and city an imperative fact in the history of Canaanitish Israel.
The development of the message of the prophets. The psychology of the
prophets. How Yahweh of Sinai finally became the imperial sovereign
of heaven and earth (in the mind of Israel). Importance of the Baby-
lonish Exile in fixing the religion of Israel in its later, monotheistic form.
The religious contrast between post-Exilic Israel and pre-Exilic Israel.
The social identity of post-Exilic and pre-Exilic Israel. The religion of
Israel transformed indeed from a local Semitic heathenism into an im-
perial, ethical monotheism; but the great social problem, which the
prophets attacked, still unsolved. The prophetic party deceived by the
forms of society, and incapable of understanding the organic nature of
the social problem. Society a collectivism developing, and also decaying,
under the forms of individualism. Futility of the prophetic prescription
of individual righteousness as a solution for the social problem. The
message of prophetism founded upon a vast "post-hoc" fallacy. Evidence
as to social cleavage in the post-Exilic psalms, proverbs, wisdom writings
and apocryphal books. Continued decline of society at the eastern end

of the Mediterranean. Gradual shifting of the center of historical in-
terest and social headship to the northern coasts of the Great Sea.

CHAPTER VI.

CLASSIC CIVILIZATION.

(Pages 197-231)

Further application of the general conception to the Greek and
Roman societies. Social cleavage established in the prehistoric period
of classic civilization upon precisely the same basis as in oriental civilization.
The clan aristocracy the original factor in Greek and Roman politics. The
growth of trade and manufacture in the northern Mediterranean exceeds
the industrialism of the ancient eastern world. Rise of the classic "Third
Estate" to economic equality with the clan aristocracy, or patrician element.
Struggle of the patricians and plebeians issues in the enfranchisement of
men upon the basis of wealth instead of upon the more ancient basis
of descent. This change a matter of great sociological importance. So-
ciety now becomes impersonal in its political phase. Along with the
retrocession of ancient family aristocracy, fatherhood ceases to rule and
protect the state. Consequently the social ideal of fatherhood loses its
military character, and becomes more industrial, domestic and lovable.
Profoundly democratic effect of these transformations upon the social
mind. Greece and Rome extend their empire all around the Mediter-
ranean, including the remains of ancient Israel within the circle of these
influences. The social problem of cleavage, however, adavnces to the
same issue in the later civilization as in the earlier civilization. In the
midst of this declining social world Christianity rises upon the foundations
of Judaism, and centers about the person of Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth.
The problem of the psychology of Jesus. The rise of Christianity a later
chapter in the psychology of the prophets. Christianity spreads at first in
the lower social class; but issues at length in a great politico-religious
engine with an aristocratic constitution - the Roman Catholic Church.
Continued decline of the classic world. Final collapse of the Roman
Empire in the West. Influx of the barbarians.

CHAPTER VII.

WESTERN CIVILIZATION.
(Pages 232-278)

Extended application of this thesis to western society, beginning on
the same level as in the chapters on the oriental and classic worlds. The
plan of history broadens in scope still further. Current misunderstanding
of American history and social development. It represents the efflux of
civilized men and capital upon a vast empire of good, unmonopolized, and
easily accessible soil. American history begins in the older civilizations.

The problem of cleavage in western society. England, Germany and
the United States. The great social paradox.

ERRATA.

Page 18 (on fly-leaf): In fourth quotation from A. W. Small,
instead of The concept of "individualism" read The concept "individual."
The sentence is correctly given in the more extended quotation at page 55.
Page 265: Instead of emigrants read immigrants.

The sociologist maintains that specialism is partialism unless it is organized into realism. — Albion W. Small, The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. III, p. 167.

The paramount duty of social scholarship at the present moment is to reckon with the epoch-making fact that to-day's men have gradually cut the moorings of ethical and social tradition after tradition, and that society is to-day adrift, without definite purpose to shape its course, and without a supreme conviction to give it motion. — Idem, The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. I, p. 567.

Society is ethically bankrupt. We have some ethical assets, but they are a small percentage of our liabilities. Speaking generally, our ethical capital consists of a heterogeneous collection of provincial moralities. There is a permanent world's exposition of clashing moral standards. Idem, Decennial Publications of the University of Chicago, Vol. IV., pp. 115, 116.

The concept of "individualism" is one of our convenient concessions to our intellectual incapacity. Idem, Decennial Publications, Vol. IV, p. 128.

The individualistic conception of human affairs is not utterly false. It is a rough, uncritical, inexact exaggeration of a perception which must be reduced to more precise and proportionate formulation. To-day's sociology is still struggling with this preposterous initial fact of the individual. He is the only possible social unity, and he is no longer a thinkable possibility. He is the only real presence, and he is never present. Whether we are near to resolution of the paradox or not, there is hardly more visible consensus about the relation of the individual to the whole than at any earlier period. Indeed, the minds of more people than ever seem to be puzzled by the seeming antinomy between the individual and the whole. - Idem, The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. V, p. 514, 515.

Doubtless the social problem has waited longer than it ought for adequate formulation, because many men have believed too implicitly with Plato that "ideas make the world." Such men have told the story of history as though it were a ghost-dance on a floor of clouds. They have tried to explain how spirits with indiscernible bodies have brought about the visible results. They would not admit that the facts of human association have been the work of flesh-and-blood men with their feet on the ground. Idem, The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. V, p. 518.

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