Among the books consulted in preparation of this essay on civilization as a social institution, UNESCO _History of Mankind_ holds first place. The authors describe the work as "the first global history, planned and executed from an international viewpoint". The subtitle of the six volumes is "Cultural and Scientific Development". The work is published under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization by an International Commission presided over by Professor Pauls E. deBerredo Carneiro of Brazil. The Commission consists of 23 members, mostly academicians from 23 countries. The commission also has a corresponding membership of 93 drawn chiefly from the academic personnel of 42 countries. Textual material for the _History of Mankind _was prepared and edited by hundreds of experts in the widely ranging fields covered by the _History_. Final approval of the text came from the Commission. In cases where there were differences of opinion or of interpretation, varying and opposing points of view are presented. _The History of Mankind _is in six volumes. I. Prehistory and The Beginnings of Civilization. II. The Ancient World. III. The World A.D. 400 to A.D. 1300. IV. The World A.D. 1300 to the End of the Eighteenth Century. V. The World in the Nineteenth Century. VI. The Twentieth Century. All but the first volume of the _History_ deal with the epoch during which civilization has played a fateful role in world affairs. Professor Arnold J. Toynbee's ten volume _Study of History_ is concerned chiefly with the rise and decline of those civilizations which have left a noteworthy historical record. His emphasis is geographical and political rather than cultural and social. The same thing may be said of other histories of civilization. They stress personalities, nations and empires. There are few books which approach the study of civilization as a stage or level of human culture. Among them are: Abbott, Wilbur C, _The Expansion of Europe_, N.Y.: Holt, 1918. 2 vols. Adams, Brooks, _The Law of Civilization and Decay_, N.Y.: Knopf, 1943. Adams, Brooks, _The New Empire_, N.Y.: MacMillian, 1902. Adams, George B., _Civilization During the Middle Ages_, N.Y.: Scribners, 1914. Albanes, Ricardo C, _La Civilizacion y el Communismo Marxista_, Habana: Cultural S.A., 1937. Ashley, Percy W., _Europe from Waterloo to Sarajero_, N.Y.: Knopf, 1926. Baikie, James, _The Life of the Ancient East_, N.Y.: MacMillan, 1923. Ballester Escalas, Rafael, _Historia de la Civilizaciones_, Barcelona: Gasso, 1961. Balmes, Jaime Luciano, _La Civilizacion_, Barcelona: Lopez Lansas, 1922. Barnes, Harry E., _A Social History of the Western World_, N.Y.: Appleton, 1921. ----, _A Survey of Western Civilization_, N.Y.: Crowall, 1947. Bell, Clive, _Civilization, an Essay_, London: Chatto and Windus, 1928.