When I began my teaching career in the mid-60s, I routinely taught a history course, Western Civilization, which was most everywhere basic to college curricula. Two decades later, relocating to a college which had replaced “Western Civilization” with “World Civilizations,” I unsuccessfully argued for a return to the much more focused and manageable course on the West. As Rodney Stark notes, in How the West Won: The Neglected Story of the Triumph of Modernity (Wilmington, Delaware: ISI Books, c. 2014): “Forty years ago the most important and popular freshman course at the best American colleges and universities was “Western Civilization.” It not only covered the general history of the West but also included historical surveys of art, music, literature, philosophy, and science. But this course has long since disappeared from most college catalogues on grounds that Western civilization is but one of the many civilizations and it is ethnocentric and arrogant for us to study ours” (#42). Thus we witnessed Stanford abandon its “widely admired ‘Western Civilization’ course just months after the Reverend Jesse Jackson came on campus and led members of the Black Student Union in chants of ‘Hey-hey, ho-ho, Western Civ has got to go.’ More recently, faculty at the University of Texas condemned ‘Western Civilization’ courses as inherently right wing, and Yale even returned a $20 million contribution rather than reinstate the course” (#49).
In light of this, Stark offers his book as a sturdy (indeed, contrarian!) defense of the currently-maligned West. Doing so, he challenges many of the voguish views of the academy, arguing that the fall of the Roman Empire was in fact beneficial, that the “Dark Ages” never happened, that the Crusades are defensible, that global warming in earlier eras was a blessing, that the “Scientific Revolution” clearly began in the Medieval period rather than the 17th century, that the Protestant Reformers replaced a repressive Catholic system with equally repressive Protestant systems, and that Europe’s colonies impoverished rather than enriched their sponsors. Still more: he argues that non-Western societies such as the Chinese and Islamic, Mayan and Indic, failed to become “modern” because of intrinsic factors making such a transition impossible. To Stark, the West’s distinctiveness resides in its ideas, and contrary to many historians (operating within a generally materialistic—whether Darwinian or Marxist—philosophical perspective) he thinks economic developments do not fully explain why cultures and civilizations rise and fall.
Glancing at the world of Classical Beginnings (500 BC-AD 500), he finds: “At the dawn of history most people [whether in China or India or Mesopotamia or Egypt] lived lives of misery and exploitation in tyrannical empires that covered huge areas” (#151). Subject to arbitrary and frequently despotic rulers, forced to work within a command economy, deprived of secure title to property, the masses of mankind loved poorly. Consequently, “in 1900 Chinese peasants were using essentially the same tools and techniques that had been using for more than three thousand years. The same was true in Egypt” (#228). But then, “In the midst of all this misery and repression a ‘miracle’ of progress and freedom took place in Greece among people who lived not in an empire but in hundreds of small, independent city-states. It was here that the formation of Western civilization began” (#158).
Despite the persistence of slavery, the Greeks tasted and celebrated (in both games and politics) the luxury of freedom. Thriving as individuals, they flourished in such areas as: warfare; democracy; economics; literary; the arts; technology; speculative philosophy and formal logic. Importantly (as Herodotus noted in explaining the differences between Egypt and Greece), “the ancient Greeks took the single most significant step toward the rise of Western science when they proposed that the universe is orderly and governed by underlying principles that the human mind could discern through observation and reason” (#473). This was possible because—as Anaxagoras and Plato saw—there is a Mind (Nous) underlying the physical cosmos—a monotheistic perspective that undergirds the West’s triumphs.
Anticipating and complementing developments in Greece, Jewish theologians also proclaimed a “rational God” who was eternal, immutable, conscious and revealed to us through both creation and scripture. Due to Alexander’s conquests and the subsequent Roman occupation of their land, many Jews were quite cosmopolitan—two centuries before Christ Jerusalem was actually known as “Antioch-at-Jerusalem.” Early Christians such as Justin Martyr drew upon the best Greek thinkers (“Christians before Christ”) as they developed their theology. Both Christian and Greek philosophers (preeminently Plato) revered “the divine gift of reason” which “has sown the seeds of truth in all men as beings created in God’s image’” (#698). Thus, to Augustine: “‘Heaven forbid that God should hate in us that by which he made us superior to the animals. Heaven forbid that we should believe in such as way as not to accept or seek reasons, since we could not even belief if we did not possess rationals souls’” (#751). Confidence in the rationality of the Creator—as well as His providential care for creation—enabled later Christian thinkers to do significant the scientific and historical studies basic to Western Civilization.
By contrast: “Islam holds that the universe is inherently irrational—that there is no cause and effect—because everything happens as the direct result of Allah’s will at that particular time. Anything is possible. Attempts at science, then, are not only foolish but also blasphemous, in that they imply limits to Allah’s power and authority. Therefore Muslim scholars study law (what does Allah require?), not science” (#825), and Islam, for 1400 years, has demonstrably failed to develop anything comparable to the science and technology, literature and philosophy of the West. Similarly, in China, the Confucian reverence for the past encouraged an opposition to change clearly illustrated by the great Chinese admiral Zheng He, who led large fleets (involving several hundred ships) across the Indian Ocean to the coast of East Africa between 1405 and 1433 A.D. His expeditions, which could easily have led to the a Chinese of the globe, came to naught when the emperor dismantled his ships and forbade further construction of oceangoing vessels. Even the blueprints for Zheng’s ships were destroyed!
Following the fall of Rome (“the most beneficial event in the rise of Western civilization”), the West emerged from the crucible of Greek and Christian culture. In the “Not-So-Dark” Middle Ages, its genius emerged and flourished. Political decentralization encouraged creativity and competition, progress and prosperity. An “agricultural revolution” enabled Medieval Europeans to eat better and live longer—as did the favorable climate during the “Medieval Warming” era (800-1250 A.D.). “As food became abundant, the population of Europe soared from about 25 million in 950 to about 75 million in 1250” (#2737). Harnessing wind and water with sophisticated machinery (often shaped in blast furnaces) enabled them to irrigate land and grind grain and navigate seas. Germans and Scandinavians, Hungarians and Slavs were successfully converted and began contributing to the creative Christian Culture responsible for impressive monuments—Gothic cathedrals; universities at Oxford and Paris; scientific inquires and advances under the guidance of brilliant thinkers such as Nicole Oresme and Jean Buridan; and magisterial scholarly works such as Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica.
Within that Medieval incubus there emerged, Stark stresses, the “freedom and capitalism” essential for the modern world. Slavery slowly disappeared throughout Christendom. It “ended in medieval Europe only because the Church extended its sacraments to all slaves and then banned the enslavement of Christians” (#2349). Only in the Christian world was slavery eliminated! Persons were increasingly free (despite the persistence of serfdom) to work voluntarily and creatively—and to increasingly to take part in the political life of their communities. Capitalism emerged throughout Europe during the late Middle Ages, long before the Protestant Reformation. Private property, commercial activities flourishing through free markets, and capital investments rendering income all brought about an incredible economic transformation. Above all else: “If there is a single factor responsible for the rise of the West, it is freedom. Freedom to hope. Freedom to act. Freedom to invest. Freedom to enjoy the flirts of one’s dreams as well as one’s labor” (#2663). This freedom flourished in Medieval Europe and shaped the future of the West.
Dramatically evident in 1492, the West quickly expanded to control much of the globe in successive centuries. Technological developments, markedly evident in superior military equipment and trades goods, enabled relatively small groups of Europeans to conquer or colonize the Americas. They also proved decisive in numerous conflicts with Muslims, insuring their retreat from Europe. “In 1800 Europeans controlled 35 percent of the land surface of the globe. By 1878 this figure had risen to 67 percent. Then in the next two decades, Europeans seized control of nearly all of Africa, so that in 1914, on the eve of World War I, Europeans dominated 84 percent of the world’s land area” (#6604). Intellectually, the “Enlightenment” proved equally decisive. Though it did indeed prompt various heterodox notions, the Enlightenment must be understood, in accord with Alfred North Whitehead, as rooted in many of the scientific and theological insights of Medieval thinkers—most especially the rationality of God and His world. “For, as Albert Einstein once remarked, the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible: ‘A priori one should expect a chaotic world which cannot be grasped by the mind in any way . . . That is the “miracle” which is constantly being reinforced as our knowledge expands.’ And that is the ‘miracle that testifies to a creation guided by intention and rationality” (#5963).
Due to this “miracle,” we Moderns enjoy unprecedented prosperity. The standard of living has dramatically increased during the past two centuries. Enjoying “political freedom, secure property rights, high wages, cheap energy, and a highly educated population,” the West now features an unprecedented quality-of-life. Back-breaking manual labor has been largely replaced by machines. Ordinary people enjoy “consumer” goods available only to the super-wealthy in earlier centuries. Hardly the catastrophe denounced by romantics (from William Wordsworth to Al Gore), technology has greatly improved the lot of ordinary folks. And this is, quite simply, how the West won!
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club?
Learn more
Join or create book clubs
Choose books together
Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Flip to back
Flip to front
Follow the Author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.
|
Price
|
New from | Used from |
|
Audible Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry"
|
$0.00
|
Free with your Audible trial | |
|
Audio CD, CD, Unabridged
"Please retry"
|
$32.49 | — |
Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
-
Apple
-
Android
-
Windows Phone
-
Android
To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Customers who bought this item also bought
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
What other items do customers buy after viewing this item?
Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
Customer reviews
Top reviews from other countries
J.P.Gomes
How The West Won - a refreshing approach
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 19, 2017Verified Purchase
C. D. Mcewan
Absolutely superb book. Stark is a social scientist and ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 27, 2017Verified Purchase
Mrs Valerie F Wise
said it is the best history book he has read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 10, 2015Verified Purchase
David Hunt
Exceptional myth-buster. An absolute must-read!!
Reviewed in Canada on July 31, 2019Verified Purchase
Bruce Murray
Myths
Reviewed in Australia on January 1, 2016Verified Purchase
