A Short History of Relations Between Peoples

How the World Began to Move Beyond Tribalism

John Ellis

• Publisher: Encounter Books
• Year: 2024
• eBook ISBN: 9781641774062
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Education Administration
• Index: History

A Short History of Relations Between Peoples traces how the cultural attitudes that different peoples and nations had toward each other have undergone a profound and positive change during the last 500 years.

For most of recorded history, neighboring countr i es, tribes, and peoples everywhere in the world regarded each other with apprehension—when not outright fear and loathing. T ribal or racial attitudes were virtually universal, no one group being much better o r worse in this respect than any other—and for good reason given the conditions of life before the modern era. But in the last 500 years, relations between different people s have undergone a slow but profound change.

In this book, John Ellis explains how a confluence of discoveries, inventions, explorations, as well as social and political changes gave birth to a new attitude, one expressed succinctly in the L ati n phrase: gens una sumus — we are all one people. This sentiment has by now become a mode r n orthodoxy, however inconsistently or even hypoc r itically it may sometimes be e spous ed. Ellis tells the st o ry of how the transition happened, setting out the crucial stages in its progress as well as the key events that moved it forward, and identifying the individuals and groups that brought about the eventual dominance of this new outlook.

This is a compelling story in its own right, but it is also a useful inoculation against the destructive ideas of today ' s race hustlers. An accurate grasp of how this crucial change happened co ntr adicts everything that they want u s to believe. Ideologies such as Critical Race Theory and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion have everything touc hin g on race and racism completely backwards. The villains of their ignorant version of hist o ry are really the heroes. In explaining how the historical record makes nonsens e of CRT, Ellis's book am o unts to the most fundamental and complete refutation of that pernicious ideology.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter One: The World of 1500
• Chapter Two: The Age of Discovery
• Chapter Three: The Crucial Spread of Literacy, and of Ideas
• Chapter Four: The Changing Rationale for Empire
• Chapter Five: Modernity Spreads Humane Values
• Chapter Six: Damaging Myths and Delusions
• Notes
• Index