Plough, sword and book - sounds like the title of another easily digested history of humanity, but don't be mistaken. Ernest Gellner never wrote a book just to restate the familiar and obvious. His style is intellectually challenging and not intended for leisurely reading.

This book presents a theory of history utilizing mostly sociological tools, but also with many elements from the history of philosophy. Gellner finds unique perspectives by combining material from different fields in his analysis, but quite a bit of background knowledge is assumed. It seems to me that the reader should have some familiarity at least with the classic works of sociology (Durkheim, Weber) and/or the history of philosophy (Plato, Descartes, Kant). This book is of course not a detailed study of any of those classics, but much of the text proceeds by discussing platonic, cartesian and weberian ways of thought on an abstract level, so you do need to have some understanding of the associated terminology before you start reading this book.

However, while abstractions can be useful for seeing the big picture, in this book they are sometimes simply confusing. Some historical exemplification in between the theorizing would have been very helpful. Too many times Gellner flies so high in his abstractions that the reader has no chance of connecting his ideas to any real event or movement in world history. This is the case especially for his analysis of Cognition, where the argument is framed with strange phrases like "Platonism is the supreme expression of agro-literate man" (p.118). It is actually difficult to understand what Gellner means by "Platonism" in this context since his usage is unconventional and historical examples are not offered.

In my opinion, the analysis of the other main topics of the book (Coercion and Production) stands on a firmer basis than the theory about Cognition. Towards the end of the book some of the material is actually a bit outdated since Gellner discusses the contemporary "marxist state" and the like (the book was written in 1988).

So this book has some minor flaws, but the great majority of it is still very interesting and useful for people who want to study our contemporary world from a critical and historical perspective. The breadth of material is very impressive, ranging from the dynamics of agrarian societies to problems of modern democracy and colonial legacies. And for such a short book, it's important that Gellner manages (most of the time) to produce well-structured accounts of the human past while also recognizing its diversity.

For people with the some background in these topics, this is a book which can be read several times, providing new questions with each reading.

gellner does a fine job of showing the contextual nature of society. this is sociology as it ought to be. ( )