Question
Where can I learn about the origins of Western Individualism? What were the major threads/forces?
Answer
Fukuyama has an excellent treatment of the question in The Origins of Political Order. Short version, sometime in the 12th-13th century, the catholic church succeeded in weakening family/kinship structures enough that individualism was the natural byproduct.
Other forces were at work, especially in England where it started, but this was basically it. The motivations were economic. Empowered individuals (including women) with clear individual title to property could bequeath it to the church. Evolution of common law, and the rise of the manorial estates and the king as the other two corners of the triangular balance of power (the third being the individual of course) helped the process. But religion appears to have been the big force, something missed by those who analyze things like the Magna Carta and the rise of yeomen in purely political terms.
The process did not happen as powerfully on the continent, and the result has been lower individualism there.
I've been meaning to blog about this, but read Fukuyama. Very worthwhile.
Other forces were at work, especially in England where it started, but this was basically it. The motivations were economic. Empowered individuals (including women) with clear individual title to property could bequeath it to the church. Evolution of common law, and the rise of the manorial estates and the king as the other two corners of the triangular balance of power (the third being the individual of course) helped the process. But religion appears to have been the big force, something missed by those who analyze things like the Magna Carta and the rise of yeomen in purely political terms.
The process did not happen as powerfully on the continent, and the result has been lower individualism there.
I've been meaning to blog about this, but read Fukuyama. Very worthwhile.