"Creatures Of The Long Night: Man And Society At The End Of Civilization" by John K. Hord (see here)
Cities In Flight by James Blish
The Technic Civilization Saga by Poul Anderson
Time Patrol by Poul Anderson
Hord presents a chart, "After Empire: Sample Cases," with the sub-headings, "Universal State," "Resurrection State" and "Future Civilization," but I have not yet made sense of this. Hord's essay is directly relevant to the two works by Anderson.
The omnibus collection of Blish's Cities In Flight (London, 1981) ends, on pp. 597-607, with:
"AFTERWORD:
"THE EARTHMANIST CULTURE:
"CITIES IN FLIGHT as a Spenglerian History"
by Richard D. Mullen.
The Afterword closes with a table comparing four cultures:
Classical;
Arabian;
Western;
Earthmanist.
Thus, Anderson's and Blish's future history series are each closely related to a different theory of historical decline.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
In my correspondence with Poul Anderson wherein we discussed the rise and fall of Technic Civilization, Anderson listed various scholars whose works had given him valuable insights. Besides Hord and Spengler, Anderson cited Eric Voegelin's studies on the rise and evolution of various civilizations. As a result I long ago obtained a copy of Voegelin's ISRAEL AND REVELATION, the first volume of his "Order in History" (I might not be recollecting the name correctly, however) series. Very much worth reading!
Sean
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