Description
Book SynopsisThis 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.
Trade ReviewWorld historians should read Duchesne's controversial book and join him in debate. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. D.M. Fahey (Miami University), Choice, November 2011
Table of ContentsPreface 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.
