The Rhythms of History: A Universal Theory of Civilizations [Paperback]

This book makes History into a quantitative Science. It begins with a hard hitting, "tell it like it is" chapter on the current international situation with statements such as: "The United States and Western civilization is now engaged in a small Vietnam-style war on a global scale at the time of this writing. This war is still in the early stages of development. The book then develops a theory of civilizations that supports these observations. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

This is not Science Fiction! But it may seem as if it were. It is that exciting. Asimov wrote the Foundation Sci Fi books about a group of mathematicians who manipulate the galaxy with a theory of civilizations. That idea is now, in part, reality. This book presents an exciting, quantitative, Theory of Civilizations supported by the data in Toynbee's classic twelve volume A Study of History. The theory is based on the long-term social nature of mankind. It reveals a linear upward Progress in Mankind's history (see the gold braided line on the front cover). Some highlights:

A long-term analysis of the conflict between the civilizations of the West and Islam.
A quantitative theory of all known civilizations showing a close match with historical events (displayed in 68 figures.)
An explanation of the origin of civilizations as the effect of a genetic mutation 40,000 years ago (that gave rise to Toynbee's "creative minority" - the group that provides leadership to a civilization) combined with favorable climactic conditions for the past 10,000 years.
A supporting qualitative theory of civilizations similar to the Dow Theory of Wall Street.
A numerical theory of the interactions of two civilizations; the interaction of a barbarian society with a civilization; the effects of increasing human lifetimes on civilizations; and the effect of technology on a civilization with corroborating historical evidence.
The identification of 15 new unrecognized civilizations.
A quantitative theory of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations and their interaction with human civilizations.
A quantitative, social theory of the Roman Catholic Church for the past 1500 years. A breakdown is predicted in roughly 2004.

Breakdowns are predicted in Japanese civilization in roughly 2002, and in Chinese, Indian and Islamic civilizations in roughly 2084. The West is predicted to rally (from a current stage of decline) in approximately 2048. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Stephen Blaha is an internationally known physicist with extensive interests in Science, the Arts and Technology. He has written a highly regarded book on physics, consciousness and philosophy Cosmos and Consciousness, a book on Science and Religion entitled The Reluctant Prophets, a book applying physics to the history of civilizations, and books on Java and C++ programming. He has also developed a mathematical theory of civilizations that is described in his book, The Life Cycle of Civilizations. He has served on the faculties of Cornell University, Yale University, Syracuse University and Williams College. He was also a Member of the Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories and a Director of Wang Laboratories. Dr. Blaha is noted for contributions to elementary particle theory and solid state physics theory as well as contributions to Computer Science. Among other achievements he was a co-discoverer of the "r potential" for heavy quark binding, first suggested the existence of topological structures in superfluid He-3, developed the first grammar-based formalism for quantum computers and applied it to elementary particle theories, and was a pioneer in UNIX development, database benchmarking, and Desktop Publishing. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.