One of man’s earliest collective experiences is summed up in the saying:  United we stand; divided we fall.

United we survive and prosper.  Divided we quarrel, fight and sooner or later break up into smaller sovereign competing groups.  If human beings wish to utilize nature or to enjoy the advantages of collective action and group life they must get together and stay together.

This necessity for collective action has appeared and reappeared all through written history.  It is one of the most important lessons of present-day human experience.  It holds for families, neighborhoods, villages, cities, nations, for mankind as a whole.  It is joint action for the general welfare.

The principle of collective action has been recognized and put into practice during the ten centuries that span the rise of western civilization—­put into practice up to a certain point—­the nation or the empire.  Beyond that point, collective action has taken two forms:  competition and conflict, including war, and coordination or cooperation under agreement, contract or treaty.

Among the outstanding results of the great revolution, improvement in communication and transportation have brought humans into contact with one another on an increasingly extensive scale, reaching its high water mark in planet-wide networks of trade, travel, migration and diplomacy, leading up to the One World which was so much in the foreground of public discussions between the two general wars of 1914 and 1939.

Much has been written on the subject.  I contributed by two bits in The Next Step, a book published in 1922 and United World, published in 1945.  Perhaps the most critical failure of western civilization was its inability or unwillingness to take that next step during the decisive years that followed the Hague Conference of 1899.

In listing the Ten Building Blocks for a New World (Chapter 13 of this book) I began with world federation because in terms of the public life of the earth around 1900, the planet was divided into two alliances of nations and empires—­the Allies, headed by Great Britain and the Central Powers, headed by Germany.

Instead of cooperating to gain their declared objectives of peace, prosperity and progress these two power blocs engaged in an armament race from 1903 to 1914, leading up to general war in 1914, with a second general war between the rivals in 1939.

When I was organizing Part II of this study (A Social Analysis of Civilization) I had to decide whether to begin with economics or politics.  As an economist I was inclined to put economics first, but since the study centered on civilization, and since all known civilizations were not groupings of economic subdivisions but aggregates of nations, empires and their dependencies, and since the expansion of civilization has consisted in enlarging the geographical area of the civilization in question, I decided to begin with politics.  As the study has progressed I have seen no reason for reversing the choice.