The Comparative Civilizations Review (CCR) is the peer-reviewed journal of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations (ISCSC), published semi-annually since 1979 and hosted since 2012 by Brigham Young University’s ScholarsArchive in association with the Harold B. Lee Library. The journal publishes analytical studies and interpretive essays concerned with the comparison of whole civilizations, the development of theories and methods useful in comparative civilization studies, accounts of intercivilizational contacts, and significant issues in the humanities or social sciences studied from a comparative civilizational perspective.

The ISCSC arose from a 1961 UNESCO-funded conference in Salzburg, Austria, where 26 founding scholars from Austria, Germany, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, England, Russia, the United States, China, and Japan — including Pitirim Sorokin and Arnold Toynbee — gathered for six days to debate the definition of “civilization,” problems in the analysis of complex cultures, civilizational encounters, the Orient versus the Occident, universal history, and the role of the human sciences in globalization. The Society was led initially in Europe by Sorokin and Othmar Anderle, then transferred to the United States through the efforts of Roger Wescott of Drew University; the first U.S. annual meeting was held in Philadelphia in 1971.

In 2011, the journal began digitizing all previous issues through BYU’s Open Journal System, making its entire back catalogue freely searchable. The journal has been indexed in the Arts & Humanities Citation Index, MLA International Bibliography, and Sociological Abstracts.

Key topics recurring across CCR volumes include: civilizational theory and method (Spengler, Toynbee, Sorokin, Quigley, Nelson, Kavolis, Coker); civilizational definitions and the culture-civilization distinction; cross-civilizational encounters between East and West, Christianity and Islam, Russia and the West, China and the Pacific; comparative religion (Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam); decline, crisis and collapse of civilizations; education and civilization; money, technology and civilization; and contemporary geopolitical issues such as civilizational states, the Thucydides Trap, the rise of China, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Source summaries:

  • v65 (Fall 2011) — Editor Joseph Drew announces the journal’s complete digitization through BYU; Editor-in-Chief Drew’s editorial note describes digitizing 7,340 pages of past issues via the Lee Library, with Connie Lamb as the project’s principal liaison. (v65)
  • v70 (Spring 2014) — Drew’s editor’s note traces the ISCSC’s history from the 1961 Salzburg Conference through the 1985 Nelson memorial volume Civilizations East and West, the 1995 Iberall “social physics” debate, the 2007 Call for Papers by Stephen Blaha, the 2013 Laina Farhat-Holzman conference on global change, and the 2014 conference theme “Can Collective Wisdom Save Civilization?” under new president David Rosner. (v70)
  • v77 (Fall 2017) — Michael Palencia-Roth, former President of ISCSC, writes “What next?” describing how the society’s membership nearly doubled in twelve months and reaffirming the mission set forth by UNESCO in 1961 in Salzburg: “To provide means of cooperation among all persons interested in the advancement of the comparative study of civilizations.” Managing Editor Peter Hecht’s note celebrates the journal’s accessible interdisciplinary forum. (v77)
  • v90 (Spring 2024) — Contains the journal’s style guide and a substantive historical note on the 1961 Salzburg founding and the chain of ISCSC presidents through Lynn Rhodes. (v90)
  • v92 (Spring 2025) — A special issue dedicated to building a textbook on comparative civilizations; includes a proposed 15-week course outline spanning ancient, classical, medieval, early-modern and modern case studies, and sampler writings from Laina Farhat-Holzman. (v92)
  • v94 (Spring 2026) — Marking the ISCSC’s recent re-organization into the Comparative Civilizations Forum (CCF) under president Bibi Pelić, with guest editor Greg Lewicki reflecting on “Civilizations on Trial: The Dream of ISCSC Founders” and what a contemporary Civilization on Trial (echoing Toynbee) might contain. (v94)