SOURCE: A review of The History of the Idea of Progress, in Chicago Review, Vol. 32, No. 2, autumn, 1980, pp. 120-23.

In the following review of History of the Idea of Progress, Solomon praises Nisbet for undermining a unitary theory of progress that has no tolerance for cultural differences.

In Aristotle's Greece, to be Greek (and preferably male, an aristocrat, and an amateur philosopher) entitled one to be considered “human.” In Java, according to the anthropologist Clifford Geertz at Princeton, the word “human” means “to be Javanese.” No doubt we all find this objectionable, but at least it is honest. We, on the other hand, are more devious; we pretend to include everybody as “human” (with fetuses, chimpanzees and Nazis on the borderline) but then proceed to define what is best about “being human” in terms of distinctly local virtues, the characteristic personality of the cosmopolitan middle-class, urban gentleman. But...