Alastair M. Taylor

Alastair MacDonald Taylor (March 12, 1915 – October 15, 2005) was a Canadian historian, filmmaker, United Nations official, professor of geography and political studies, and interdisciplinary thinker.

The first world-history textbook in the United States, and a best-seller since its initial appearance in 1942, it has been published in many editions, and with additional authors, and is familiar to generations of students.

Taylor became the Official Spokesman of the Security Council's United Nations Commission for Indonesia, which oversaw the peace settlement between the Netherlands and its former colony.

Upon its publication, this work was hailed as a "brilliant study of the protracted negotiations that led to Indonesia's independence"[1] and as "the fullest, most accurate, and least biased"[2] treatment in print of the UN's role.

TST understands human societies as instances of open natural systems equilibrating with their environments in a hierarchy of integrative levels.