Carroll Quigley Carroll Quigley ( November 9 , 1910 – January 3 , 1977 ) was an American historian and theorist of the evolution of civilizations . He is noted for his teaching work as a professor at Georgetown University , for his academic publications , and for his research on secret societies . Life and career . Quigley was born in Boston , and attended Harvard University , where he studied history and earned B . A , M . A . , and Ph . D . degrees . He taught at Princeton University , and then at Harvard , and then at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University from 1941 to 1976 . From 1941 until 1972 , he taught a two - semester course at Georgetown on the development of civilizations . According to the obituary in the " Washington Star " , many alumni of Georgetown ' s School of Foreign Service asserted that this was " the most influential course in their undergraduate careers " . In addition to his academic work , Quigley served as a consultant to the U . S . Department of Defense , the U . S . Navy , the Smithsonian Institution , and the House Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration in the 1950s . Quigley served as a book reviewer for the " Washington Star " and was a contributor and editorial board member of " Current History " . Quigley said of himself that he was a conservative defending the liberal tradition of the West . He was an early and fierce critic of the Vietnam War , and he was against the activities of the military - industrial complex . Quigley retired from Georgetown in June 1976 and died the following year . Major conclusions . Inclusive diversity . Quigley ' s work emphasized inclusive diversity as a core value of Western Civilization , contrasting it with the dualism of Plato . He concluded " Tragedy and Hope " with the hope that the West could " resume its development along its old patterns of Inclusive Diversity . " From his study of history , " it is clear that the West believes in diversity rather than in uniformity , in pluralism rather than in monism or dualism , in inclusion rather than exclusion , in liberty rather than in authority , in truth rather than in power , in conversion rather than in annihilation , in the individual rather than in the organization , in reconciliation rather than in triumph , in heterogeneity rather than in homogeneity , in relativisms rather than in absolutes , and in approximations rather than in final answers . " Quigley asserts that any intolerance or rigidity in the religious practices of the West are aberrations from its nature of inclusivity and diversity . Quigley points to the tolerance and flexibility in Aquinas ' s belief that theological truth is revealed over time through dialogue within the Christian community , which allows the community to adapt to a changing world . Institutionalization and the fall of civilizations . Having studied the rise and fall of civilizations , " Quigley found the explanation of disintegration in the gradual transformation of social " instruments " into " institutions , " that is , transformation of social arrangements functioning to meet real social needs into social institutions serving their own purposes regardless of real social needs . " Weapons and Democracy . Quigley concludes , from a historical study of weapons and political dynamics , that the characteristics of weapons are the main predictor of democracy . Democracy tends to emerge only when the best weapons available are easy for individuals to buy and use . This explains why democracy is so rare in human history . In the 1800s ( peaking in the 1880s ) , guns were the best weapon available . In America , almost everyone could afford to buy a gun , and could learn how to use it fairly easily . Governments couldn ' t do any better : It became the age of mass armies of citizen soldiers with guns ( Similarly , Periclean Greece was an age of the citizen soldier and democracy ) . In the 1900s , expensive , specialist weapons ( such as tanks and bombers ) became available , and citizen soldiers became dominated by specialist soldiers . Quigley notes that the slaughter of World War I was due to the mismatch between the traditional armies ( citizen soldiers ) and the available weapons ( machine guns used defensively ) . Style . Quigley ' s writing style is dense , influenced by a former history professor of his : " As we raced along , Goethe was covered in fifteen minutes , Schiller in ten , Fichte in five . . . he covered any topic simply by slicing it up into a small number of parts and giving a name to each part . The complex character and achievement of Goethe , for example , were divided into six portions , each was given a title , and , ever after , the whole of Goethe could be evoked merely by reciting six words . . . I should like to outdare even my former professor by dividing this greater complexity < nowiki > [ Classical culture ] < / nowiki > into only five parts . " Quigley ' s analytical style is scientific , stemming from his earlier training in physics . In this book we are concerned with the social sciences . . . and particularly with the effort to apply a scientific method of observation , formulation of hypotheses , and testing to such phenomena . The enormous size of this field has made it advisable to curtail our attention to the process of social change , especially in civilizations . Influence on Bill Clinton . In his freshman year in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown , future U . S . President Bill Clinton took Quigley ' s course , receiving a ' B ' as his final grade in both semesters ( an excellent grade in a course where nearly half the students received D or lower ) . Clinton named Quigley as an important influence on his aspirations and political philosophy in 1991 , when launching his presidential campaign in a speech at Georgetown . He also mentioned Quigley again during his acceptance speech to the 1992 Democratic National Convention , as follows : As a teenager , I heard John Kennedy ' s summons to citizenship . And then , as a student at Georgetown , I heard that call clarified by a professor named Carroll Quigley , who said to us that America was the greatest Nation in history because our people had always believed in two things – that tomorrow can be better than today and that every one of us has a personal moral responsibility to make it so . Quigley and secret societies . One distinctive feature of Quigley ' s historical writings was his assertion that secret societies have played a significant role in recent world history . His writing on this topic has made Quigley famous among many who investigate . Quigley ' s views are particularly notable because the majority of reputable academic historians profess skepticism about conspiracy theories . Quigley ' s claims about the Milner Group . In his book " The Anglo - American Establishment : From Rhodes to Cliveden " , Quigley purports to trace the history of a secret society founded in 1891 by Cecil Rhodes and Alfred Milner . Quigley notes that " The organization was so modified and so expanded by Milner after the eclipse of Stead in 1899 , and especially after the death of Rhodes in 1902 , that it took on quite a different organization and character , although it continued to pursue the same goals . " The society consisted of an inner circle ( " The Society of the Elect " ) and an outer circle ( " The Association of Helpers " , also known as The Milner Kindergarten and the Round Table Group ) . The society as a whole does not have a fixed name : Quigley assigns this group primary or exclusive credit for several historical events : the Jameson Raid , the Second Boer War , the founding of the Union of South Africa , the replacement of the British Empire with the Commonwealth of Nations , and a number of Britain ' s foreign policy decisions in the twentieth century . In 1966 , Quigley published a one - volume history of the twentieth century entitled " Tragedy And Hope " . At several points in this book , the history of the Milner group is discussed . Moreover , Quigley states that he has recently been in direct contact with this organization , whose nature he contrasts to right - wing claims of a communist conspiracy : This radical Right fairy tale , which is now an accepted folk myth in many groups in America , pictured the recent history of the United States , in regard to domestic reform and in foreign affairs , as a well - organized plot by extreme Left - wing elements . . . This myth , like all fables , does in fact have a modicum of truth . There does exist , and has existed for a generation , an international Anglophile network which operates , to some extent , in the way the Radical right believes the act . In fact , this network , which we may identify as the Round Table Groups , has no aversion to cooperating with the Communists , or any other group , and frequently does so . I know of the operation of this network because I have studied it for twenty years and was permitted for two years , in the early 1960s , to examine its papers and secret records . I have no aversion to it or to most of its aims and have , for much of my life , been close to it and to many of its instruments . I have objected , both in the past and recently , to a few of its policies . . . but in general my chief difference of opinion is that it wishes to remain unknown , and I believe its role in history is significant enough to be known . According to Quigley , the leaders of this group were Cecil Rhodes and Alfred Milner from 1891 until Rhodes ' death in 1902 , Milner alone until his own death in 1925 , Lionel Curtis from 1925 to 1955 , Robert H . ( Baron ) Brand from 1955 to 1963 , and Adam D . Marris from 1963 until the time Quigley wrote his book . This organization also functioned through certain loosely affiliated " front groups " , including the Royal Institute of International Affairs , the Institute of Pacific Relations , and the Council on Foreign Relations . In addition , other secret societies are briefly discussed in " Tragedy and Hope " , including a consortium of the leaders of the central banks of several countries , who formed the Bank for International Settlements . Citations of Quigley in exposées of purported conspiracies . Soon after its publication , " Tragedy and Hope " caught the attention of authors interested in conspiracies . They proceeded to publicize Quigley ' s claims , disseminating them to a much larger audience than his original readership . This began in 1970 , when W . Cleon Skousen published " The Naked Capitalist : A Review and Commentary on Dr . Carroll Quigley ' s Book " Tragedy and Hope " " . The first third of this book consists of extensive excerpts from " Tragedy and Hope " , interspersed with commentary by Skousen . Skousen quotes Quigley ' s description of the activities of several groups : the Milner Group , a cartel of international bankers , the , the Institute of Pacific Relations , and the Council on Foreign Relations . According to Skousen ' s interpretation of Quigley ' s book , each of these is a facet of one large conspiracy . In 1971 , Gary Allen , a spokesman for the John Birch Society , published " None Dare Call It Conspiracy " , which became a bestseller . Allen cited Quigley ' s " Tragedy and Hope " as an authoritative source on conspiracies throughout his book . Like Skousen , Allen understood the various conspiracies in Quigley ' s book to be branches of one large conspiracy , and also connected them to the Bilderbergers and to Richard Nixon . The John Birch Society continues to cite Quigley as a primary source for their view of history . Quigley is also cited by several other authors who assert the existence of powerful conspiracies . Jim Marrs , whose work was used as a source by Oliver Stone in his film " JFK " , cites Quigley in his book " Rule By Secrecy " , which describes a conspiracy linking the Milner Group , Skull and Bones , the Trilateral Commission , the Bavarian Illuminati , the Knights Templar , and aliens who posed as the Sumerian gods thousands of years ago . Pat Robertson ' s book " The New World Order " cites Quigley as an authority on a powerful conspiracy . Conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly has asserted that Bill Clinton ' s political success was due to his pursuit of the " world government " agenda he learned from Quigley . G . Edward Griffin relies heavily on Quigley for information about the role Milner ' s secret society plays in the Federal Reserve in his book " The Creature from Jekyll Island : A Second Look at the Federal Reserve " . Quigley was dismissive of the authors who used his writings to support theories of a world domination conspiracy . Of W . Cleon Skousen ' s " The Naked Capitalist " he stated : Skousen ' s book is full of misrepresentations and factual errors . He claims that I have written of a conspiracy of the super - rich who are pro - Communist and wish to take over the world and that I ' m a member of this group . But I never called it a conspiracy and don ' t regard it as such . I ' m not an " insider " of these rich persons , although Skousen thinks so . I happen to know some of them and liked them , although I disagreed with some of the things they did before 1940 . On Gary Allen ' s " None Dare Call It Conspiracy " he said : They thought Dr . Carroll Quigley proved everything . For example , they constantly misquote me to this effect : that Lord Milner ( the dominant trustee of the Cecil Rhodes Trust and a heavy in the Round Table Group ) helped finance the Bolsheviks . I have been through the greater part of Milner ' s private papers and have found no evidence to support that . Further , " None Dare Call It Conspiracy " insists that international bankers were a single bloc , were all powerful and remain so today . I , on the contrary , stated in my book that they were much divided , often fought among themselves , had great influence but not control of political life and were sharply reduced in power about 1931 - 1940 , when they became less influential than monopolized industry . Criticism . In " Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler " , the Hoover institution scholar Antony Sutton stated : Quigley goes a long way to provide evidence for the " existence " of the power elite , but does not penetrate the " operations " of the elite . Possibly , the papers used by Quigley had been vetted , and did not include documentation on elitist manipulation of such events as the Bolshevik Revolution , Hitler ' s accession to power , and the election of Roosevelt in 1933 . More likely , these political manipulations may not be recorded at all in the files of the power groups . They may have been unrecorded actions by a small ad hoc segment of the elite . It is noteworthy that the documents used by this author came from government sources , recording the day - to - day actions of Trotsky , Lenin , Roosevelt , Hitler , J . P . Morgan and the various firms and banks involved . F . William Engdahl , in an overview of financial imperialism entitled " The Gods of Money " , criticized Quigley for stating that the power of international bankers declined in the 1930s , and insofar as the influence of international bankers in America was concerned , suggested that Quigley was confusing " international finance " with Morgan interests . He suggested , like Sutton , that Quigley ' s papers had been vetted . Engdahl argued that it was not the case that the power of " international finance " declined , but rather , Morgan interests fell and were replaced by Rockefeller interests . Quigley stated that the intentions and objectives of the group he profiled , associated with Wall Street and the City of London and Cecil Rhodes ' super - imperialism , were " largely commendable " . Members of the group , in statements recorded by the " New York Times " in 1902 , proclaimed that they formed their society for the purpose of " gradually absorbing the wealth of the world " . Quigley argued that the Round Table groups were not World Government advocates but super - imperialists . He stated that they emphatically did not want the League of Nations to become a World Government . Yet Lionel Curtis , who according to Quigley was one of the leaders of the Round Table movement , wished for it to be a World government with teeth , writing articles with H . G . Wells urging this . Although Quigley did not overtly condemn the Anglo - American financial coterie that he wrote about , he , according to an interview he gave , and letters of his that were later published by the magazine " Conspiracy Digest " , had the plates of his book destroyed against his will by MacMillan , and believed that his work was being suppressed . One of the published letters stated the following : According to Gary North , in " Conspiracy : A Biblical View " , Gary Allen received a letter from a friend of Quigley ' s who stated that Quigley had begun to view the group he profiled as a malevolent influence in political affairs by the end of his life .