The Camel and the Wheel by Richard W. BullietReview by: Daniel F. McCallThe American Historical Review, Vol. 81, No. 5 (Dec., 1976), pp. 1068-1069Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1852873 .

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I o68 Reviews of Books

those of Gaston Bouthoul), draws heavily from Freudian tradition, and fundamentally believes that war derives from such subconscious factors as "the paranoic elaboration of mourning."

Historians will probably react with disbelief, if not outright amusement, to this aggravating book, hailed among many European scholars as a major contribution. The chasm in methodology between historical and psychoanalytical approaches re- garding what constitutes evidence, for instance, requires leaps of faith to accept conclusions that are on practically every page. One case may suf- fice: "Captain Cook, for example, was killed by the natives of the Sandwich Islands because he had violated one of their taboos by trying to seize the king's person. In Captain Cook the natives were punishing their own hostile feelings against their chief" (p. 53).

After reviewing psychoanalytical theory, For- nari's larger purpose is to demonstrate that neither traditional social sciences nor older psycho- analytical theory remains valid for the nuclear era. Psychoanalytical studies, following Freud's Civ- ilization and Its Discontents, broadly claimed that collectivities fought, not because of avowed hatred of an enemy, but rather because of ambivalence and fear that a love object would be destroyed. Indeed, it could be argued that this vision justifies the psychological serviceability of war permitting the healthy defense of a love object. Nuclear capa- bility, however, in which total annihilation awaits both subject and love object, forever terminates the psychological benefits of war. Hence, the author would apply the insights of his craft to uncover ways to avoid war. He simultaneously urges the importance of recognizing that this avoidance itself must include means to lift the burdens of guilt and fear.

When we reach the "practical" recommenda- tions that are tentatively and not optimistically sketched, it is hard to avoid the impression that the sophisticated scientist has been replaced by a well- intentioned Boy Scout. In essence, the author's remedy requires individual conscious recognition of those unconscious dynamics that had caused war-a kind of mass, yet individualized psycho- analytical process. We are all guilty of participat- ing in war when we follow our political leadership. Thus, we must devise a political or legal institution (Fornari calls it the Omega institution) to help us collectively psychoanalyze our way out of the temptation to fight. Perhaps, the author proposes, smaller satellite nations attached to the great pow- ers might point in this direction by creating inter- national peace-keeping forces or by merging their sovereignty in the United Nations. Fornari seems unaware that his psychoanalytically derived policy

recommendations differ very little in content or concept from traditionalist internationalist or pac- ifist prescriptions dating from the pre- 914 era. He is even less acute in comprehending the connection between peace and social justice.

Historians concerned with the general problem of war in society, who are willing to confront tradi- tional Freudian analysis and who are interested in "interdisciplinary" extensions of their craft, will find this book useful as a summary of psycho- analytical theory and admirable as an example of a concerned scholar's commitment to put his knowledge into practical service. Most historians will come away with a greater skepticism of psy- choanalysis as a social science. The reader's pa- tience will be needlessly exercised by the far too literal translation and the use of words such as "dereal," when "unreal" or "illusory" would have done (pp. 141, 148). The editor and translator could have tried harder.

SANDI E. COOPER

Richmond College, C'ity University of New York

RICHARD W. BULLIET. The Camel and the Wheel. Cam- bridge: Harvard University Press. 1975. Pp. xiv, 327. $16.oo.

W. H. R. Rivers pondered the fact that on an island in Oceania, which must have been reached by water, the inhabitants no longer made canoes. He wrote an article, "The Disappearance of the Useful Arts" (Festskrift tillagnad Edvard Westermarck [1912], 103-30), in which he wondered how com- mon such a phenomenon might be.

R. W. Bulliet, apparently unaware of Rivers' example, set out to explain the disappearance-for over a millennium-of the wheel and the cart from the very region of their invention, the Middle East, whence they have diffused around the globe. In so doing, many other things had to be investigated as well: the domestication of the camel; the invention of harnessing and saddles; the development and decline of the incense trade; the circumstances of the integration of the Arab camel nomads into tht imperial societies of antiquity; the competition be- tween the one-humped and two-humped camels; the anomaly of certain local adjustments to the general pattern; the failure, despite efforts, t6 transplant the camel transport system to arid areas of Australia and America; and, finally, the impact of motorized wheeled vehicles on camel- using societies.

The story spans five millennia-from the early days of animal domestication until today-with each step succinctly told. The author characterizes his inquiry as overlapping historical anthropology

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General I o69

and technological history, but it has items of inter- est for many area and period specialists-from the Saharan Mauretanian limes of the Roman Empire to the regions Owen Lattimore called "the inner Asian frontiers" of China. Strict adherence to what is thematically relevant and magistral organ- ization of discussion preserves a sense of unity despite these vast dimensions.

This is a finely documented, profusely illus- trated study. Bulliet has been painstaking in the assembly of data, neither incautious nor over- cautious in constructing hypotheses, judicious in evaluation of evidence (being scrupulously fair to the pro and con), delightfully lucid in exposition, and, on the whole, persuasive in argumentation. This is a book to place beside H. Pirenne's Mo- hamed and Charlemagne and a very few others that seek to transcend a myriad of events to find the cause of epochal change.

DANIEL F. MCCALL

Boston University

D. P. 0 BRIEN. The Classical Economists. New York: Oxford University Press. I975. Pp. xiii, 3o6. $19.25.

This is a good, scholarly book on classical econom- ics, but the relevant question for historians may be whether it is a good book for non-economists. It is written in much more straightforward and read- able prose than most writings by economists, but it does deal with economic technicalities and has the equations and graphs which have become the hall- mark of modern economic theory. Moreover, it is set in a basically ahistorical framework. That is, the book is not organized chronologically but by economic specialty-value theory, monetary the- ory, international trade theory-as they existed during the classical era. There are advantages and disadvantages to such a presentation, but those who look historically at intellectual history may find the disadvantages particularly irksome.

Substantively, Classical Economics has not only good scholarship but also incisive reasoning and a balanced understanding which is lacking in all too many other books on the same subject. Its techni- calities are not as technical-or as historically mis- taken-as those of such noted economists as Mark Blaug, Paul Samuelson, or Martin Bronfenbren- ner writing on similar themes. Its readability never descends to the cute vulgarizations of Robert L. Heilbroner or Alexander Gray. It is an excellent book for a class of graduate students, or perhaps undergraduate economics majors. Whether it is equally good for those outside the field may per- haps best be determined by simply browsing through it. My guess is that J. A. Schumpeter's History of Economic Analysis is a better investment for

the non-economist; maybe even for the economist as well.

T14OMAS SOWELL

University of California, Los Angeles

D. B. GRIGG. The Agricultural Systems of the World: An Evolutionary Approach. (Cambridge Geographical Studies, number S.) New York: Cambridge Uni- versity Press. 1974. Pp. ix, 358. Cloth $19.50, paper $7.95.

Here is a single-volume history of world agricul- ture. Even attempting such a feat deserves com- mendation, but D. B. Grigg has in fact written a splendid book. Part i, in four chapters, is a broad stroke canvas of evolutionary forces in farming: population growth and migration, diffusion of plant and animal stock, physical environment, and economic-technological changes. Within this framework, however, industrialization created a revolution that clearly demarcates the past century from the previous one hundred centuries, as well as those countries that have experienced economic development from those that have not. The com- mentary is heavily detailed, ranging from water lifting devices in ancient Mesopotamia to Bougain- ville's discovery of the South Pacific "Noble" sugar cane varieties in 1768.

Part 2 has nine chapters describing how particu- lar agricultural systems came into being. Grigg wastes no time arguing over typology, choosing instead to accept, with small modification, Der- went Whittlesey's I936 classification of shifting ag- riculture, wet rice cultivation, pastoral nomadism, Mediterranean agriculture, mixed farming, dair- ying, plantations, ranching, and large-scale grain production. Subsections break the chapters into discussions about characteristic features of the sys- tems, historical periods of development, and re- gional variations. Maps are used profusely, as are charts and tables, many from FAO publications, to provide current data.

Both the appendix and bibliography deserve mention. In a page and a half, Grigg has appended a handy reference, "Regions of Plant Domes- tication after C. D. Darlington." A reader can easily find, for example, that wine grapes, Vitis vinifera, were originally domesticated in South West Asia. The bibliography includes 1,229 titles, which, with annotation, could probably have been published separately.

Grigg has thus performed a valuable service in making available a vast amount of information about world agriculture and in clearing the way for further study. Geographers, historians, and ag- ricultural economists will find this book good read-

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