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CivilizationThe term civilization (or civilisation) - from the Latin civis meaning 'city'/'state' - has been used in various ways at different times.
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Sometimes examples are given of the earliest civilisations, such as China, ancient Egypt, Indus Valley Civilisation and Sumer. The features of these groups that are seen as distinguising them from earlier settlements such as neolithic Jericho and Catalhuyuk[?]:
Encompassing concepts such as chivalry, barbarian. The concept of civilisation has at time formed part of the justification by which some groups have exerted control over others, e.g., during European colonization of the Americas or British India. Hence, Mahatma Gandhi's famous response to the question "What do you think of Western civilisation?" - his reply: "I think it would be a good idea."
One school of thought says that civilisation is a cultural identity which represents the broadest level of identification in which an invididual intensely identifies, broader than family, tribe, hometown, nation, or region. Civilizations are usually tied to religion or some other belief system.
The concept of civilization is central to the historical theories of Arnold J. Toynbee who described history as the process of the rise and decline of civilizations, of which he identified 26. It is also central to the political beliefs of Samuel P. Huntington who argues that the defining characteristic of the 21st century will be the interaction and conflict between civilizations.
The concept of empire overlaps with that of "civilisation", so the empirical description of the 500-year old Western empire[?] by Noam Chomsky and the more theoretical analysis by Negri[?] and Hardt[?] constitute other contemporary analyses of civilisations.
Source (with some changes): Guinness Book of Historical Records
Civilization is also the name of a line of computer games, see: Civilization computer game.
Civilisation: A Personal View by Lord Kenneth Clark was a popular TV series outlining the history of Western society produced by the BBC and aired in 1969. Lord Kenneth Clark wrote and presented the series and also wrote the book Civilisation: A Personal View published in 1970.
To have narrated this according to the original intention would have
as such a cogent reason exists for abridging it, that I should, on a
by any such unaffecting details, the impression of the history
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Not the Opium-eater, but the opium, is the true hero of the tale,
object was to display the marvellous agency of opium, whether for
closed.
However, as some people, in spite of all laws to the contrary, will
he now is, I answer for him thus: The reader is aware that opium
solely by the tortures connected with the attempt to abjure it that
thought, attended the non-abjuration of such a tyrant, a choice only
however terrific in itself, held out a prospect of final restoration
strength to act upon it. However, a crisis arrived for the author's
will always be far dearer to him than his life, even now that it is
I determined, therefore, if that should be required, to die in
for the opium which I used had been purchased for me by a friend,
ascertain even what quantity I had used within the year. I
varied from about fifty or sixty grains to 150 a day. My first task
twelve grains.
I triumphed. But think not, reader, that therefore my sufferings
Think of me as one, even when four months had passed, still
perhaps in the situation of him who has been racked, as I collect
by a most innocent sufferer {20} of the times of James I. Meantime,
by an Edinburgh surgeon of great eminence, viz., ammoniated tincture
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