Plough, Sword and Book
E850782
Plough, Sword and Book is a major work of social and political philosophy by Ernest Gellner that analyzes the historical development of human societies through agrarian, military, and literate-cultural transformations.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Plough, Sword and Book canonical | 4 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10221531 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Plough, Sword and Book Context triple: [Ernest Gellner, notableWork, Plough, Sword and Book]
-
A.
By the Sword
"By the Sword" is a thriller novel by F. Paul Wilson that forms part of his long-running Repairman Jack series, blending supernatural elements with fast-paced suspense.
-
B.
Sword of State
The Sword of State is an ornate ceremonial sword symbolizing royal authority and the monarch’s power to govern, prominently carried during the State Opening of Parliament in the United Kingdom.
-
C.
The Arts of War
The Arts of War is a pair of monumental equestrian bronze sculptures by Leo Friedlander that symbolize martial valor and sacrifice, installed at the Washington, D.C. entrance to Arlington Memorial Bridge.
-
D.
Men at Arms
Men at Arms is the second novel in Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honour trilogy, continuing the semi-autobiographical story of Guy Crouchback’s experiences in the early years of the Second World War.
-
E.
With Fire and Sword
With Fire and Sword is a historical novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz that dramatizes the 17th-century Cossack uprising in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Plough, Sword and Book Target entity description: Plough, Sword and Book is a major work of social and political philosophy by Ernest Gellner that analyzes the historical development of human societies through agrarian, military, and literate-cultural transformations.
-
A.
By the Sword
"By the Sword" is a thriller novel by F. Paul Wilson that forms part of his long-running Repairman Jack series, blending supernatural elements with fast-paced suspense.
-
B.
Sword of State
The Sword of State is an ornate ceremonial sword symbolizing royal authority and the monarch’s power to govern, prominently carried during the State Opening of Parliament in the United Kingdom.
-
C.
The Arts of War
The Arts of War is a pair of monumental equestrian bronze sculptures by Leo Friedlander that symbolize martial valor and sacrifice, installed at the Washington, D.C. entrance to Arlington Memorial Bridge.
-
D.
Men at Arms
Men at Arms is the second novel in Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honour trilogy, continuing the semi-autobiographical story of Guy Crouchback’s experiences in the early years of the Second World War.
-
E.
With Fire and Sword
With Fire and Sword is a historical novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz that dramatizes the 17th-century Cossack uprising in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
book
ⓘ
work of social philosophy ⓘ |
| about |
cultural homogenization in modernity
ⓘ
emergence of modern states ⓘ relationship between knowledge and power ⓘ structure of traditional societies ⓘ transition from agrarian to industrial societies ⓘ |
| author | Ernest Gellner ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | United Kingdom ⓘ |
| field |
anthropology
ⓘ
philosophy ⓘ political science ⓘ sociology ⓘ |
| genre |
political philosophy
ⓘ
social philosophy ⓘ social theory ⓘ |
| hasPart |
analysis of agrarian social structures
ⓘ
analysis of literacy and high culture ⓘ analysis of military power and coercion ⓘ discussion of nationalism and the modern state ⓘ |
| hasPerspective |
modernist
ⓘ
rationalist ⓘ secular ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Enlightenment thought
ⓘ
classical sociology ⓘ philosophy of science ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
agrarian societies
ⓘ
historical development of human societies ⓘ literate culture ⓘ military organization ⓘ modernity ⓘ political order ⓘ relationship between culture and power ⓘ social change ⓘ |
| notableIdea |
link between literacy and centralized culture
ⓘ
role of coercion in social organization ⓘ threefold schema of plough, sword, and book ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition |
analytic philosophy
ⓘ
liberalism ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
Conditions of Liberty
ⓘ
Nations and Nationalism ⓘ Thought and Change ⓘ |
| theoreticalApproach |
comparative sociology
ⓘ
historical sociology ⓘ philosophy of history ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Plough, Sword and Book Description of subject: Plough, Sword and Book is a major work of social and political philosophy by Ernest Gellner that analyzes the historical development of human societies through agrarian, military, and literate-cultural transformations.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.