WH McNeill --- great historian

The paperback edition of WHMcNeill's magesterial 5000 year history of mankind, published in 1963 ($1.50) ends this way:

"Men some centuries from now will surely look back upon our time as a golden age of unparalleled technical, intellectual, institutional ... creativity. Life in Demothenes' Athens, in Confuciuos' China... was was violent risky and und uncertain; hopes struggled with fears... We bleong in this high company and should count ourselves fortunate to live in one of the great ages of the world. "

More than 40 years later it still true and more so, with one nation (The U.S. of A) at the point of the lance of an "Empire of Ideas" such as has never been before.

Ben