ary to build and maintain a high
level of culture over substantial periods of time. In these special
areas it was possible to provide for subsistence, produce an economic
surplus large enough to permit experimentation and ensure protection
against human and other predators. Egypt and the Fertile Crescent were
surrounded by deserts and high mountains. Crete was an island, extensive
but isolated. Productive river valleys like the Yang-tse, the Ganges and
the Mekong have afforded natural bases for experiments with
civilization. Similar opportunities have been provided by strategic
locations near bodies of water, mineral deposits and the intersections
of trade-routes. Others, less permanent, were located in the high Andes,
on the Mexican Plateau, in the Central American jungles.

Histories of civilizations, some of them ancient or classical, have
been written during the past two centuries. There have been general
histories in many languages. There have been scholarly reports on
particular civilizations. Prof. A.J. Toynbee's massive ten volume _Study
of History_ is a good example. Still more extensive is the thirty volume
history of civilization under the general editorship of C.K. Ogden.
These writings have brought together many facts bearing chiefly on the
lives of spectacular individuals and episodes, with all too little data
on the life of the silent human majority.

At the end of this volume the reader will find a list, selected from the
many books that I have consulted in preparation for writing this study.
Most of these authorities are concerned with the facts of civilization,
with far less emphasis on their political, economic and sociological
aspects.

In this study I have tried to unite theory with practice. On the one
hand I have reviewed briefly and as accurately as possible some
outstanding experiments with civilization, including our own western
variant. (Part I. The Pageant of Experiments with Civilization.) In Part
II I have undertaken a social analysis of civilization as a past and
present life style. In Part III, Civilization Is Becoming Obsolete, I
have tried to check our thinking about civilization with the sweep of
present day historical trends. Part IV, Steps Beyond Civilization, is an
attempt to list some of the alternatives and opportunities presently
available to civilized man.

Any reader who has the interest and persistence to read through the
entire volume and to browse through some of its ref