Social Change and History: Aspects of the Western Theory of Development

Introduction --
1: History and metaphor --
2: Metaphor of growth --
Part 1: Civilization As Growth In Time: The Biography Of A Metaphor --
1: Greeks --
1: Being as becoming --
2: Cycles of genesis and decay --
3: Progress and degeneration --
2: Christians --
1: Augustinian metaphor --
2: Repudiation of cycles --
3: Historical necessity --
4: Two cities: conflict and resolution --
5: Progress and degeneration --
3: Moderns --
1: Metaphor as progress --
2: Expansion of metaphor --
3: Progress and degeneration --
Part 2: Theory Of Social Development --
4: Theory of natural history --
1: Nature versus convention --2: Natural versus conventional history --
5: Theory of social evolution --
1: Sources and contexts --
2: Elements of social evolution --
6: Comparative method --
1: Ethnocentric foundations --
2: historical roots --
3: Three series --
Part 3: Persistence And Change --
7: Persistence of metaphor --
1: Cycle, epic, and progress --
2: Neo-evolutionism --
8: Reflections on a metaphor --
1: Uses of Metaphor --
2: Abuses of metaphor --
3: Irrelevance of metaphor --
Notes and references --
Index.