History of The Idea
The concept 'cradle of civilization' is the subject of much debate. The figurative use of cradle in the sense of "the place or region in which anything is nurtured or sheltered in its earlier stage" is traced by the OED to Spenser (1590). Rollin's Ancient History (1734) has "Egypt that served at first as the cradle of the holy nation."
The phrase "cradle of civilization" plays a certain role in national mysticism. It has been used in Eastern as well as Western cultures, for instance, in Hindu nationalism (In Search of the Cradle of Civilization 1995), and Taiwanese nationalism (Taiwan — The Cradle of Civilization 2002). The terms also appears in esoteric pseudohistory, such as the Urantia Book claiming the title for "the second Eden," or the pseudoarchaeology related to Megalithic Britain (Civilization One 2004, Ancient Britain: The Cradle of Civilization 1921).
Read more about this topic: Cradle Of Civilization
Famous quotes containing the words history of, history and/or idea:
“The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man’s right to his body, or woman’s right to her soul.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“Books of natural history aim commonly to be hasty schedules, or inventories of God’s property, by some clerk. They do not in the least teach the divine view of nature, but the popular view, or rather the popular method of studying nature, and make haste to conduct the persevering pupil only into that dilemma where the professors always dwell.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Politics has been called the “art of the possible,” and it actually is a realm akin to art insofar as, like art, it occupies a creatively mediating position between spirit and life, the idea and reality.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)