World 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
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. "The Uniqueness of Western Civilization" is every inch the embodiment of the striving spirit the author finds so characteristic of the endeavors of Western man -- a hankering after high achievement and a wish to make one s mark through the overthrow of accepted opinion. But Duchesne is no polemicist. For all its argumentative power, "The Uniqueness of Western Civilization" is old-school scholarship at its best; consequential, closely reasoned, richly evidenced, and professionally courteous. Stephen Balch, Chairman of the National Association of Scholars With this book, Duchesne...becomes more than a good man -- he stakes his claim to being thought a sage..."Uniqueness" may persuade readers to ponder on the ineffable nature of the human soul. It will certainly become an indispensable reference on the great passages of history. Eric Jones, author of "The European Miracle" World historians should read Duchesne's controversial book and join him in debate. Summing Up: Highly recommended. D.M. Fahey, Miami University in "Choice," November 2011
About the Author
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.
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