地理与世界霸权

All the worlds a stage. In this volume an endeavour is made to tell a coherent story and show that there is really some order in the apparently disorderly happenings on this planet. Dealing with world history and geography in such small compass, it is obvious that there must be many omissions. Opinions may differ as to what omissions ought to be made, and some things may not present themselves in the same light as they do to the author, but the correctness of the thesis as a whole does not depend on the accuracy of this or that statement or view. In particular it may be as well to emphasise the fact that while the book deals with world history, it deals with only one side of it. I ts special concern, in fact, is rather with the setting of the stage than with the action of the drama. I ts aim is to point out how the stage was set at different epochs in the history of the world, and specially how the stage has been set for that act of the drama now being played. At a cursory glance, then, the book may possibly appear to be materialistic, but it is materialistic only in the sense that from the nature of the case it deals with material things. The ways in which geographical conditions affect the actors are traced out, but those spiritual aspects of the drama which do not exhibit the geographical control are naturally not referred to. This does not mean that they do not exist. J. F.