To picture world history as advancing smoothly and steadily without sometimes taking gigantic strides backward is undialectical, unscientific and theoretically wrong
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Viewing history as a smooth, linear progression ignores the reality of large setbacks, which is unscientific and contrary to dialectical analysis.
- In plain terms
- History isn’t a steady march forward; it has big backward steps.
- What can you take from it?
- Expect and study regressions in historical development.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do we measure progress when setbacks occur?
- What drives historical regressions?
Another view
Some may argue that overall trends still show progress despite setbacks.
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