Keeping together in time
Subtitle: dance and drill in human history
By: William H. McNeill
Contributors: American Council of Learned Societies; History E-Book Project
Series: Reprint series; ACLS humanities e-book; ACLS Humanities E-Book (Series); Reprint series (History E-Book Project)
Publisher: ACLS History E-Book
Published: 2013
Place of publication: New York, USA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 198
ISBN-13: 9781597406741
Subjects: Dance; Military history; Cross-cultural studies; Psychology of Movement; Rhythm; Psychological aspects; World history; Unit cohesion (Military science); Drill and minor tactics
Description: In Keeping Together in Time one of the most widely read and respected historians in America pursues the possibility that coordinated rhythmic movement - and the shared feelings it evokes - has been a powerful force in holding human groups together. As he has done for historical phenomena as diverse as warfare, plague, and the pursuit of power, William McNeill brings a dazzling breadth and depth of knowledge to his study of dance and drill in human history. From the records of distant and ancient peoples to the latest findings of the life sciences, he discovers evidence that rhythmic movement has played a profound role in creating and sustaining human communities. The behavior of chimpanzees, festival village dances, the close-order drill of early modern Europe, the ecstatic dance-trances of shamans and dervishes, the goose-stepping Nazi formations, the morning exercises of factory workers in Japan - all these and many more figure in the bold picture McNeill draws. A sense of community is the key, and shared movement, whether dance or military drill, is its mainspring. McNeill focuses on the visceral and emotional sensations such movement arouses, particularly the euphoric fellow-feeling he calls "muscular bonding." These sensations, he suggests, endow groups with a capacity for cooperation, which in turn improves their chance of survival.
Notes: ACLS Humanities E-Book presents this volume as part of its Print-on-Demand (POD) program.

Cover title.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 159-190) and index.

Facsim reprint. Originally published: Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 1995.