William McNeill, professor, writer of 'Rise of the West' . By Hillel
Italie Associated Press . NEW YORK - William H. McNeill, the
prize-winning scholar who wove the stories of civilizations worldwide
into the landmark "The Rise of the West" and helped pioneer the history
of disease and epidemics in "Plagues and People," died Friday at his
home in Torrington, Conn. according to the University of Chicago, where
Dr. McNeill was a professor emeritus. He was 98. Dr. McNeill wrote more
than a dozen books, notably "The Rise of the West," published in 1963.
In The New York Times Book Review, historian Hugh Trevor-Roper said:
"This is not only the most learned and the most intelligent, it is also
the most stimulating and fascinating book that has ever set out to
recount and explain the whole history of mankind. It won the National
Book Award, selling well despite exceeding 800 pages. The title was a
direct challenge to Oswald Spengler's "The Decline of the West. But
"The Rise of the West," its narrative extending from the Paleolithic
Age to the present, was also born out of a Freudian struggle with Dr.
McNeill's hero and father figure Arnold Toynbee, then the reigning
scholar of world history. Toynbee believed civilizations of the East
and West had essentially developed independently and their stories were
separate. Dr. McNeill countered that they were very much part of one
story, one of "contacts and "exchanges" and the triumph of Western
innovation over the stagnation of Muslim and Chinese culture. "Indeed,
world history since 1500 may be thought of as a race between the West's
growing power to molest the rest of the world and the increasingly
desperate efforts of other peoples to stave Westerners off," wrote Dr.
McNeill, who also cautioned that another civilization could overtake
the West. He was criticized for writing too favorably of the West and
would acknowledge flaws. In a "retrospective essay," he noted that "The
Rise of the West" was in part influenced by the Cold War and the United
States' post-World War II ascendance. He underestimated the Chinese,
"gave undue attention to Latin Christendom," and showed "scant concern
for the sufferings of the victims of historical change. He faulted the
scholarship of the time, but also "the bias" of his education and
"personal idiosyncrasies" that led him to favor stories of Western
success. But he welcomed disagreement. The past, he was sure, would be
captured with ever greater "precision, richness, and accuracy beyond
anything previously possible. Dr. McNeill always looked for new ways to
explain the world. He did not track change through the feats of great
men but through everyday innovation, technology, and the mixing of
cultures. He documented the democratizing effect of the close-order
military drill, the moldboard plow's transformation of agriculture, the
impact of potato farming in Ireland. He studied closely what happened
when "cakes of custom collided," whether between rural and urban
cultures, rival religions, or rival countries. Dr. McNeill regarded his
future books as sequels and correctives to "Rise of the West. In the
1976 release "Plagues and People," he was among the first to examine
the impact of infectious disease in history, from ancient Eurasia to
the 20th century. He anticipated the AIDS epidemic that would break out
a few years later and helped launch a field of scholarship. In 2003, he
collaborated with his son, John, on "The Human Web: A Bird's Eye View
of History. His memoir, "The Pursuit of Truth," came out two years
later. He was born in Vancouver. His father, John T. McNeill, was a
theologian and Medieval historian who sought to find common beliefs
among Christians worldwide; the younger McNeill would see his
scholarship as a secular version of his father's calling. He was an
undergraduate at the University of Chicago and a graduate student at
Cornell University. His formal education was suspended in 1941 after
the attack on Pearl Harbor and his enlistment in the Army, in which he
served five years. But he continued to observe and absorb. He shared
quarters with men of widely differing backgrounds. He learned
cryptography. Dr. McNeill especially valued his assignment to gather
intelligence on the Communist uprising in Greece. "What better
experience could a historian have than to find himself observing
revolution and counterrevolution close-up? he wrote in his memoir.
After the war, he met and married Elizabeth Darbishire, whose father
was a close friend of Toynbee's. She died in 2006. In addition to his
son John, he leaves another son, Andrew, and two daughters, Ruth
McNeill and Deborah McNeill; and 11 grandchildren. In 1947, Dr. McNeill
joined the faculty of the University of Chicago and remained for 40
years. He also served as chairman of the history department. "Teaching
is the most wonderful way to learn things," he once said. "You have to
get up before a class at 10 o'clock the next morning and have something
to say. A turning point came in the early 1950s when he accepted
Toynbee's offer to come to London and assist on a project about World
War II. After two years, Dr. McNeill was disillusioned. He found that
Toynbee resisted new ideas and "was sloppy in his scholarship. Dr.
McNeill returned to the states and worked on what he knew would be his
"big book. "I typed the manuscript of 'The Rise of the West' on a
portable Underwood noiseless typewriter that my parents had given me as
a 21st birthday present," he wrote. "It was accompanied by a verse my
father composed inviting me to 'write a book of lasting worth. Material
from New York Times was used in this obituary.
