Excerpt from An Essay on Western Civilization: In Its Economic AspectsIn the lands that encircle the Mediterranean there has been an unbroken tradition of civilized life from the earliest times; it has shifted from point to point, from Egypt to Phoe nicia, from Phoenicia and Carthage to Greece and Rome, from Constantinople to Italy and France. The life has been more vigorous at some periods than at others; at times it has been circumscribed, and again it has spread abroad to affect the destinies of distant peoples. It has never died out or become extinct. The English nation, which has been the principal agent in diffusing the influence of Western Civilization through out the East, has received a great heritage of industrial skill and commercial enterprise from other peoples. If we would understand aright the part our country has played and is play ing in the world, we must try to understand how this great heritage of industrial and commercial activity has been built up - in what fashion each people has inherited and perpetuated the tradition it received, and what contribution each has added of its own.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.