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Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable and interesting history
Review: Armesto's approach to history is driven by ecological concerns, showing how a particular culture adapted to its particular environmental milieu. In the introduction, he discusses the difficulties historians have had trying to define the concept of civilization, pointing out that they all fail in one way or another. But Armesto's approach is simple in that ultimately it all comes down to food, sustenance, sustainability, and adaptation to one's environment. He mentions that other historians occasionally write him, complaining that his approach ultimately comes down to the history of food. Armesto also makes the important point that comparative historical analyses of civilizations, such as that of Toynbee's, have failed primarily because each civilization is the product of adaptation to a unique set of environmental circumstances.Armesto didn't pioneer this approach, and other historians have certainly used it also. If I remember correctly, didn't the great Ellsworth Huntington 100 years ago theorize that the decline of the ancient civilizations was due to a drying period in the climate in the Middle East starting several thousand years ago? I'm not sure what the current status of this theory is, since I've also read that one of the reasons that Sumeria and Akkadia declined after the second millenium BC and that the focus of power and culture shifted northward into Babylonia, was because the lower Euphrates and Tigris rivers suffered salination. Anyway, I still found Armesto's approach interesting, and as valid as any other method. Armesto is always saying things that I found informative that I hadn't read anywhere else. For example, in talking about the evolution of the first effective nomadic animal herders, he points out that the critical advance is having mixed flocks of different animals, since different animals will give milk at different times of the year--otherwise, you might run out of milk--which could mean the difference between survival and starvation. Armesto uses this interesting approach to analyze some important (and not-so-important) civilizations, ranging from ancient Mesopotamia to the Lapps in northern Scandinavia. He has the ability to capture what is specific or unique about a particular culture with a few incisive, almost epigrammatic phrases, and similarly, he is equally comfortable with broader time scales, and can give you seemingly effortless insights about an entire historical period in a few sentences or brief paragraph. This doesn't mean the book is superficial in its approach or that Armesto is given to making broad, casual, over-generalizations. Far from it. As a result, the entire book kept my interest and curiosity at a high pitch since I was always wondering what Armesto was going to say next. Overall, a very well-written, engaging, and enjoyable history by an outstanding contemporary historian, and with an interesting approach to its subject.
Rating: 
Summary: Rough around the edges, but impressive for its erudition
Review: As an adolescent, Fernandez-Armesto read the first volumes of Toynbee's "A Study of History" and "vowed never to return to them." Later in life, he "found that Toynbee's work is half full of wisdom," and "Civilizations" owes much to that half, admitting that his doctrine of "challenge and response"--the interrelationship between humans and their environment--is a "powerful and useful characterization" of how civilization can be measured. Inspired by this and other ideas, Fernandez-Armesto here defines and organizes civilizations by "their systematic refashioning of nature." Spanning over ten millennia, proceeding from tundra societies to maritime empires, and incorporating histories both obscure and familiar, "Civilizations" is a cornucopia of minutiae and generalizations, and the breadth of Fernandez-Armesto's reading and knowledge is staggering. Since he covers hundreds of societies, many get only a page or two while others get more detailed treatment, and the encyclopedic aspect of this work can be both exhilarating and overwhelming. (Readers lacking a historical atlas will probably find the lack of maps quite frustrating.) The book works best when the author is making a point or telling a story, as when he takes the reader on a tour of the wonders of the classical (Greek) world, when he discusses both the inflated significance and the true accomplishments of Vasco da Gama, or when he focuses, in the book's final chapters, on the importance of maritime history (his specialization) during the last thousand years. "Civilizations" falters a bit, however, when Fernandez-Armesto sketches cultures with which he seems to have a passing knowledge (Songhay, New Guineau, the Mound Builders). In some of these sections, the prose reads like a series of observations transcribed or paraphrased from a sequence of those index cards favored by researchers. Still, some of those index cards are pretty darn interesting. Fernandez-Armesto admits that this comparative study is "an experimental work," "rough-hewn," written "in something like a frenzy." Although I didn't think that its slapdash character was particularly wearisome, the book does contain some sloppy, imprecise statements that a second draft would have thrashed into submission. During his discussion of the Atlantic slave trade during the early modern period, for example, the author writes what he simply cannot mean: "It is not even clear what abolitionists found morally repugnant about slavery: they let other forms of exploitation, including coolie abuse, sweatshops, and convict labor succeed it." Putting aside the glib anachronisms in this sentence, the ambiguous "let" in this sentence demands clarification: abolitionists of the late 1700s and early 1800s were no more responsible for "coolie labor" or sweatshops than Einstein could have been for "letting" Hiroshima and Chernobyl happen. There are a number of carelessly worded and unsupported gaffes like this one, made in the "frenzy" of getting it all down, and the author doesn't always package his assortment of assertions and abundance of data into a cohesive whole. Fortunately these shortcomings don't overwhelm the merits of this sweeping, information-packed historical survey.
Rating:
Summary: Fails to deliver
Review: Fernandez-Armesto's purpose in writing this book is to change the way we think of civilizations -- both in definition and in perspective. He gives us his definition of civilization -- the process by which human communities attempt to alter their environment -- and then gives us a "history" of the world's civilizations, grouped by the type of environment they inhabited. Thus, for example, he will compare and contrast the ways that the inhabitants of the Great Plains in North America, the Sahel and the savannah in Africa, and the steppes of central Asia attempted to adapt their enviornment. A fascinating idea, right? Unfortunately, even though he promises to do this, he never really does. Instead, he has written short impressionist pieces on civilizations around the world, lumping them together superficially. There is very little structure to this work; Fernandez-Armesto never details the irrigation techniques in one area and compares them to another; he never closely examines the deforestation process in North America and northern Euorpe; in short, he never does any of the things he promises to do. Despite this ambitious failure, the book is still entertaining, educational, and stimulating. Fernandez-Armesto has put out a new schema for the study of human history, but it appears that it will be up to someone else to do real analysis.
Rating:
Summary: Fails to deliver
Review: Fernandez-Armesto's purpose in writing this book is to change the way we think of civilizations -- both in definition and in perspective. He gives us his definition of civilization -- the process by which human communities attempt to alter their environment -- and then gives us a "history" of the world's civilizations, grouped by the type of environment they inhabited. Thus, for example, he will compare and contrast the ways that the inhabitants of the Great Plains in North America, the Sahel and the savannah in Africa, and the steppes of central Asia attempted to adapt their enviornment. A fascinating idea, right? Unfortunately, even though he promises to do this, he never really does. Instead, he has written short impressionist pieces on civilizations around the world, lumping them together superficially. There is very little structure to this work; Fernandez-Armesto never details the irrigation techniques in one area and compares them to another; he never closely examines the deforestation process in North America and northern Euorpe; in short, he never does any of the things he promises to do. Despite this ambitious failure, the book is still entertaining, educational, and stimulating. Fernandez-Armesto has put out a new schema for the study of human history, but it appears that it will be up to someone else to do real analysis.
Rating:
Summary: A Brilliant Synthesizer Gives Us Another Good Book
Review: Fernandez-Armesto's venture into environmental history further enhances his reputation as the leading scholar producing large-scale history. Here he classifies civilizations according to the general type of environment in which they arose, flourished and---often---declined. Environments and their civilizations include highlands (Zimbabwe, Inca, Aztec); small islands (Polynesia, Malta, Crete); deserts (Peru, Sahara, Gobi), among others. He then analyzes their adaptations to these settings, as well as exploring other factors. This is an ambitious if not wholly successful work, and an exceptionally thoughtful one. Among other merits, his discussion of the thorny issue of defining a "civilization" is both sensible and relaxed, unlike some other, rather overwrought treatments (Spengler, Toynbee, Huntington). Like all his work, "Civilizations" is studded with insightful comments and distinguished by sparkling literary style. That said, there are a few flaws. Some equally valid alternate typologies exist to categorize societies and cultures, and some of these civilizations were not fully distinct from others. Despite his best efforts, this work does not fully escape the shadow of determinism. This US edition is not well-supplied with the illustrations (the British edition has photos) maps, diagrams and statistical tables that are very helpful in dealing with environmental data. Lastly, the author relies almost entirely on published primary and secondary sources, but this is really a necessity in creating history on such a huge canvas. It's the only way to avoid the "Lord Acton Trap:" that famous Victorian historian sought to write the entire history of human liberty strictly from manuscript sources, and as a result he never completed a single book. Write on, Dr. Felipe!
Rating:
Summary: A Brilliant Synthesizer Gives Us Another Good Book
Review: Fernandez-Armesto's venture into environmental history further enhances his reputation as the leading scholar producing large-scale history. Here he classifies civilizations according to the general type of environment in which they arose, flourished and---often---declined. Environments and their civilizations include highlands (Zimbabwe, Inca, Aztec); small islands (Polynesia, Malta, Crete); deserts (Peru, Sahara, Gobi), among others. He then analyzes their adaptations to these settings, as well as exploring other factors. This is an ambitious if not wholly successful work, and an exceptionally thoughtful one. Among other merits, his discussion of the thorny issue of defining a "civilization" is both sensible and relaxed, unlike some other, rather overwrought treatments (Spengler, Toynbee, Huntington). Like all his work, "Civilizations" is studded with insightful comments and distinguished by sparkling literary style. That said, there are a few flaws. Some equally valid alternate typologies exist to categorize societies and cultures, and some of these civilizations were not fully distinct from others. Despite his best efforts, this work does not fully escape the shadow of determinism. This US edition is not well-supplied with the illustrations (the British edition has photos) maps, diagrams and statistical tables that are very helpful in dealing with environmental data. Lastly, the author relies almost entirely on published primary and secondary sources, but this is really a necessity in creating history on such a huge canvas. It's the only way to avoid the "Lord Acton Trap:" that famous Victorian historian sought to write the entire history of human liberty strictly from manuscript sources, and as a result he never completed a single book. Write on, Dr. Felipe!
Rating:
Summary: A worthy companion to MILLENIUM
Review: I admit that I have every known work published by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto. Almost all deserve that coveted five star award (exception being TRUTH). The current work is more than a history of various groups of peoples we conventiently call civilizations - culture would be apt. The originality of this work is its premise, namely that civilizations are to evaluated on their reaction to their environment. It makes for interesting bed-fellows; one can group African and Arab desert tribes with the Lapps and Inuits. Upon reflection it makes sense to view things this way. The similarities among these various groups is amazing considering their geographical isolation and cultural diversity. But each ecological niche - sand, mountains, oceans, jungles, grasslands, swamps - have the same problems and obstacles regardless of their geographical location - whether near the North Pole, in the Andes or in the steaming jungles of Southeast Asia. Fernandez-Armesto's works tower over felllow journalists simply because they extend further, make bolder claims, ask the right questions. Despite his interest and reverence for primitive peoples, he is not a multi-culturist who claims that every civilization is morally equal or that this kind of short, brutish life is preferable to our contented, abundant ones. He does ask for an attentive ear and an open mind for this lesson in history, language, food, customs and ideas.
Rating:
Summary: A worthy companion to MILLENIUM
Review: I admit that I have every known work published by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto. Almost all deserve that coveted five star award (exception being TRUTH). The current work is more than a history of various groups of peoples we conventiently call civilizations - culture would be apt. The originality of this work is its premise, namely that civilizations are to evaluated on their reaction to their environment. It makes for interesting bed-fellows; one can group African and Arab desert tribes with the Lapps and Inuits. Upon reflection it makes sense to view things this way. The similarities among these various groups is amazing considering their geographical isolation and cultural diversity. But each ecological niche - sand, mountains, oceans, jungles, grasslands, swamps - have the same problems and obstacles regardless of their geographical location - whether near the North Pole, in the Andes or in the steaming jungles of Southeast Asia. Fernandez-Armesto's works tower over felllow journalists simply because they extend further, make bolder claims, ask the right questions. Despite his interest and reverence for primitive peoples, he is not a multi-culturist who claims that every civilization is morally equal or that this kind of short, brutish life is preferable to our contented, abundant ones. He does ask for an attentive ear and an open mind for this lesson in history, language, food, customs and ideas.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting look at civilizations
Review: This book was a good read. It focused on the hardships different civilizations face while battling a certain environment. The book produces a thought provoking thesis: two civilizations cannot be compared without looking at their environmental circonstances. The part that really grabbed me is the book's inclination towards relatively latent civilizations. This really drove me to learning more about these concealed peoples, such as the sahel and the tuaregs. I had never heard of them eventhough i found out they were quite a prominent civilization. There are many more like the Tuareg and each description is of a perfect length and detail. It waters ones tongue for more. Some of the civilizations were inconspicuous and this had a dentrimental affect on the book for the reason i like it was for the hidden cultures. Each section talked about a number of civilizations in detail their history and how they delt with the physical barriers imposed by their environmental situations. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a revolutionary look at civilizations and their environments.
Rating:
Summary: Refreshing
Review: Truth be said. Nowadays it is hard to find an accurate and impartial history of civilization, and most of the civilizations we'll be able to read about do not illustrate the effort to transform the environment like some of the civilizations portrayed in this book. The book is arranged according to similarities in the environment which sprouted especific civilizations and which similarities these weathers produce in their civilizations. In a different manner to what you'll most often find, he will explain the similarities of civilizations neither as the product of a proto civilization nor as a global consciousness, but rather as a direct consequence of the desire to transform the environment. The other thing that made this book refreshing (I know that most wont find a comparative history of civilizations refreshing) is how lucid Fernandez-Armesto's thougths on civilization are. On most explanations you'll find that the process of civilization is a way to improve the way of life, which this book clearly proofs wrong, via evidence, not because he is against civilization, but because in a short term it would reduce the diet of humans, and would increase infectious diseases. This is not only a work of history, but it clearly ilustrates the human mind and how it adapts, not only to it's own environment, but to external cultural influences. Though, as said on other reviews, Armesto fails to deliver all he promised (probably because he promises too much), still his work is worth of praise.
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