Professor Carroll Quigley presents crucial "keys" without which 20th century political, economic, and military events can never be fully understood. The reader will see that this applies to events past-present-and future. "The Rhodes Scholarships, established by the terms of Cecil Rhode's seventh will, are known to everyone. What is not so widely known is that Rhodes in five previous wills left his fortune to form a secret society, which was to devote itself to the preservation and expansion of the British Empire. And what does not seem to be known to anyone is that this secret society ... continues to exist to this day. ... This group is, as I shall show, one of the most important historical facts of the twentieth century." -Quigley

Carroll Quigley, American historian and professor at Georgetown University, died January 5, 1977, leaving behind a manuscript on weapons systems and political stability, upon which he had been working on for the preceding twelve years. Very few would ever see his final work, that is, until today. For the first time in over 30 years, this manuscript is now available to the public in its entirety, unabridged and original format. Professor Quigley's Weapons Systems and Political Stability carries further toward completion the uniquely anthropological holistic analysis of history, which is the theme of his earlier works; Tragedy and Hope and The Evolution of Civilizations. Quigley's observations on the uses of war are penetrating. Throughout history, society's decisions regarding its weapons systems have been decisive in shaping human social, economic, and political decisions. Of special interest today is Quigley's division of western weapons systems over the last thousand years into five successive stages, each associated with different political system. In Quigley's social analysis the dominance of democracy in the 20th century is attributable to the acceptance in the 19th century of a weapons system that favored democracy, the hand gun and rifle. In the consequent tilt toward an atomistic society, loyalties to the once strong social structures of family, church, and workplace break down.

TRAGEDY AND HOPE shows the years 1895-1950 as a period of transition from the world dominated by Europe in the nineteenth century to the world of three blocs in the twentieth century. With clarity, perspective, and cumulative impact, Professor Quigley examines the nature of that transition through two world wars and a worldwide economic depression. As an interpretative historian, he tries to show each event in the full complexity of its historical context. The result is a unique work, notable in several ways. It gives a picture of the world in terms of the influence of different cultures and outlooks upon each other; it shows, more completely than in any similar work, the influence of science and technology on human life; and it explains, with unprecedented clarity, how the intricate financial and commercial patterns of the West prior to 1914 influenced the development of today's world.

Carroll Quigley was a legendary teacher at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service. His course on the history of civilization was extraordinary in its scope and in its impact on his students.Like the course, "The Evolution of Civilizations" is a comprehensive and perceptive look at the factors behind the rise and fall of civilizations.Quigley defines a civilization as "a producing society with an instrument of expansion." A civilization's decline is not inevitable but occurs when its "instrument" of expansion is transformed into an "institution"--that is, when social arrangements that meet real social needs are transformed into social institutions serving their own purposes regardless of real social needs.

TRAGEDY AND HOPE shows the years 1895-1950 as a period of transition from the world dominated by Europe in the nineteenth century to the world of three blocs in the twentieth century. With clarity, perspective, and cumulative impact, Professor Quigley examines the nature of that transition through two world wars and a worldwide economic depression. As an interpretative historian, he tries to show each event in the full complexity of its historical context. The result is a unique work, notable in several ways. It gives a picture of the world in terms of the influence of different cultures and outlooks upon each other; it shows, more completely than in any similar work, the influence of science and technology on human life; and it explains, with unprecedented clarity, how the intricate financial and commercial patterns of the West prior to 1914 influenced the development of today's world.