The Uniqueness of Western Civilization

Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-90-04-19248-5
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 28, 527 Seiten, Format (B × H): 168 mm x 244 mm, Gewicht: 1021 g

Reihe: Studies in Critical Social Sciences

This extensively researched book argues that the development of a libertarian culture was an indispensable component of the rise of the West. The roots of the West's superior intellectual and artistic creativity should be traced back to the aristocratic warlike culture of Indo-European speakers. Among the many fascinating topics discussed are: the ascendancy of multicultural historians and the degradation of European history; China's ecological endowments and imperial windfalls; military revolutions in Europe 1300-1800; the science and chivalry of Henry the Navigator; Judaism and its contribution to Western rationalism; the cultural richness of Max Weber versus the intellectual poverty of Pomeranz, Wong, Goldstone, Goody, and A.G. Frank; change without progress in the East; Hegel's Phenomenology of the [Western] Spirit; Nietzsche and the education of the Homeric Greeks; Kojeve's master-slave dialectic and the Western state of nature; Christian virtues and German aristocratic expansionism.

Zielgruppe

Educated laymen, academics, and students interested in the rise of the West, comparative historical sociology, and world history, as well as historians of Europe and Indo-Europeanists.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Duchesne, Ricardo

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Kultureller Wandel, Kulturkontakt, Akkulturation
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Mentalitäts- und Sozialgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface

1. The Fall of Western Civilization and the Rise of Multicultural World History
2. Eurocentrism over Sinocentrism
3. Whence the Industrial Divergence?
4. The Continuous Creativity of Europe
5. The ‘Rise’ of Western Reason and Freedom
6. The Restlessness of the Western Spirit from a Hegelian Perspective
7. The Aristocratic Egalitarianism of Indo-Europeans and the Primordial Origins of Western Civilization
8. The Emergence of the Self from the Western ‘State of Nature’ and the Conciliation of Christianity and
Aristocratic Liberty

Cited Works
Index

Extensive table of contents can be downloaded under "Extra" on the right.

Über Autor(innen)

Duchesne, Ricardo
Ricardo Duchesne, Ph.D (1994) in Social & Political Thought, York University, is Professor of Sociology at The University of New Brunswick, Saint John, Canada. He has published numerous articles on the rise of the West.