William H. McNeill (1917–2016)
Author of Plagues and People
About the Author
William Hardy McNeill was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on October 31, 1917. He received a bachelor's degree and a master's degree from the University of Chicago. He was drafted in 1941 and served with the Army in Hawaii and the Caribbean and as assistant military attaché to the show more Greek and Yugoslavian governments-in-exile in Cairo, Egypt. After the war, he received a doctorate from Cornell University. He was a history professor at the University of Chicago from 1947 until he retired in 1987. He wrote more than 20 books during his lifetime including Plagues and Peoples; The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A.D. 1000; Arnold J. Toynbee: A Life, Hutchins' University: A Memoir of the University of Chicago, 1929-1950; and Keeping Together in Time: Dance and Drill in Human History. The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community won the 1963 National Book Award for history and the Gordon J. Laing Prize of the University of Chicago. He was the co-author of The Human Web: A Bird's-Eye View of World History with his son John Robert McNeill. He also wrote a memoir entitled The Pursuit of Truth: A Historian's Memoir. He was one of the editors of the Readings in World History Series published by Oxford University Press. He died on July 8, 2016 at the age of 98. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by William H. McNeill
The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A.D. 1000 (1982) 493 copies, 1 review
The Human Condition: An Ecological and Historical View (Bland-Lee lecture series delivered at Clark University, 1979) (1980) 33 copies
Hutchins' University: A Memoir of the University of Chicago, 1929-1950 (Centennial Publications of The University… (1991) 28 copies
Polyethnicity and National Unity in World History (Donald G. Creighton Lectures, 1985) (1986) 9 copies
World history in maps;: A teachers manual for use with Denoyer-Geppert world history series, (1963) 6 copies
HISTORIA DEL MUNDO 1 copy
世界史 II──人類の結びつきと相互作用の歴史 1 copy
戦争の世界史(下) (中公文庫) 1 copy
世界史 I ── 人類の結びつきと相互作用の歴史 1 copy
The Hamlyn history of the world in colour. Vol.20, From peace to war into the space age (1970) 1 copy
THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD 1 copy
Associated Works
What If? The World's Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been (1999) — Contributor — 1,808 copies, 25 reviews
What If? 2: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been (2001) — Contributor — 1,040 copies, 11 reviews
Maps of Time : An Introduction to Big History (2004) — Foreword, some editions — 624 copies, 13 reviews
Fundamentalisms and Society: Reclaiming the Sciences, the Family, and Education (The Fundamentalism Project) (1993) — Contributor — 34 copies
The Origins of Business, Money, and Markets (Columbia Business School Publishing) (2011) — Foreword, some editions — 21 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Spring 1998 (1998) — Author "Infectious Alternatives" — 15 copies
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History — Winter 1995 (1994) — Author "Keeping Together in Time" — 10 copies
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society - Fifth Series, Volume 32 (1982) — Contributor, some editions — 7 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- McNeill, William H.
- Legal name
- McNeill, William Hardy
- Birthdate
- 1917-10-31
- Date of death
- 2016-07-08
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
Canada (birth) - Birthplace
- Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Place of death
- Torrington, Connecticut, USA
- Places of residence
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
Colebrook, Connecticut, USA - Education
- Cornell University (Ph.D|1947)
University of Chicago (BA|1938|MA|1939) - Occupations
- historian
professor - Relationships
- McNeill, John T. (father)
McNeill, J. R. (son) - Organizations
- University of Chicago
American Historical Association
United States Army (WWII) - Awards and honors
- American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1964)
American Philosophical Society (1977)
National Humanities Medal (2010)
Erasmus Prize (1996)
National Book Award in History and Biography (1964) - Short biography
- William H. McNeill was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, the son of a Presbyterian minister and historian of Christianity. He graduated from the University of Chicago, where he was editor of the student newspaper, in 1938, and earned a master’s degree with a thesis on Thucydides and Herodotus.
In 1941, during World War II, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. After the war, he earned a doctorate in history at Cornell University and joined the faculty of the University of Chicago, where he remained until his retirement in 1987.
Members
Reviews
The Rise of the West: A History of the Human… by William H. McNeill
1/31/23
Very broad history of the world, emphasizing human connectedness across cultures. Well done although in a book like this there almost always seems like too much detail - even though you know every tidbit of detail could be (and probably is) a book of its own.
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Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 66
- Also by
- 10
- Members
- 4,962
- Popularity
- #5,055
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 51
- ISBNs
- 171
- Languages
- 13
- Favorited
- 3
