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The World and the West: The European Challenge and the Overseas Response in the Age of Empire |
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The World and the West: The European Challenge and the Overseas Response in the Age of Empire
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by Philip D. Curtin
Sales Rank: 560613
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$24.99
At Amazon
on 6-20-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 308 pages
Published by: Cambridge University Press; New Ed edition February 25, 2002
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0521890543
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0521890540
Book Dimensions:
8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
Weighs: 14.4 ounces
Product Review
"Philips Curtin is one of the ablest, most prolific storytellers of our time. He has woven a number of these tapestries, often bringing together in elegant fashion many important and long-neglected threads (African history, the social consequences of migration, the impact of disease on the unfolding of empire) with themes and images more familiar from other, grander but less careful renderings of our portrait." The Boston Review
"Philip D. Curtin's new book is a fascinating contribution to the debateThe book is well-written; the case studies are carefully selected; complex development and events are expounded with great ease and elegance; and they show how enormously erudite and experienced a historian Curtin is." The International History Review
Product Description
This book is a study of the interaction of the Western societies of Europe and America with others around the world in the past two centuries--the age of European empire. Through a variety of case studies, it considers the European threat and the non-Western response, but the focus is on the ways in which people in Asia, African, and Indian America have tried to adapt their ways of life to the overwhelming European power of the period.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: The World and the West: The European Challenge and the Overseas Response in the Age of Empire (Hardcover)
Within the history profession, Philip Curtin is one of the fathers of comparative history, if for no other reason than so many of his students have become professors who also write and teach comparative history. His stature within the profession is hard to exaggerate. At a recent conference on world history, I overheard a group of educators brainstorming a shortlist of "essential authors". They reached an immediate consensus on William McNeill, Alfred Crosby, and Philip Curtin...and then paused for debate. There is clearly an audience of professional historians out there who are review-proof. Thirty years ago, Philip Curtin published a book entitled *Imperialism*. Today the lexicon - and the perspective - have changed. He begins *The World and the West* with a discussion about the varieties of "colonialism". Only then does he begin to explore loaded concepts like "diffusion" and "modernization" using case studies that illustrate selective, syncretic processes. European states are reluctant, even unable, to administer colonies without the collaboration of local elites; efforts to modernize or reform lead to unintended consequences including defensive modernization and millennialism. Modernization inevitably transforms societies, but it often carries only a veneer of westernization. Curtin's forte is comparison, and his case studies reveal diversity than enrich his arguments. One expects Japan and the Ottomans, but Central Asia and South Africa? Buganda and Siam? Ghana and Indonesia? It's clear why Curtin is held in such high regard among world historians. The scope of his comparisons is global. This is clearly one of those 'not for everybody' books, but to its credit, it is under 300 pages and the case studies are very accessible. You don't need to be a professional historian to read and enjoy the book. Indeed, professional historians may take issue with some of Curtin's interpretations. (That's not just their right; it's their job.) My only criticism is that I would have liked more maps and photos - especially in the first half of the book. Other than that, I think Philip Curtin fans are in for a treat.
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The World and the West: The European Challenge and the Overseas Response in the Age of Empire
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Price: $24.99
Updated on 6-20-2008.
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