The Uniqueness of Western Civilization (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9789004192485)

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.

Author: Ricardo Duchesne
ISBN-10: 9004192484
ISBN-13: 9789004192485
Publisher: Brill
Language: English
Published: 02/07/2011
Pages: 540
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 2.25lbs
Size: 9.60h x 6.60w x 1.30d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 11/01/2011
Reference and Research Bk News 06/01/2011 pg. 23