Development of Human Societies

Abstract

Historians and other social scientists, using various models and criteria, have defined several stages of societal development. Some have made the list lengthy; others have abbreviated it. However, each social scientist seems to acknowledge that the greatest revolutions in human history were the agricultural and industrial revolutions, which gave birth to the agricultural and industrial civilizations, respectively. Historians also acknowledge that these two revolutions have had the greatest impact on human ways of living and states of living, or on their cultures and economic conditions. There is also agreement on at least three major stages of societal development or civilization: the preagricultural, the agricultural, and the industrial stage. Nevertheless, a growing number of historians think that the information and communications revolutions represent another great revolution in human history that is destined to transform both the cultures and economic conditions of people everywhere.