What makes western civilization

She argues knowledge is gained through action and is not a predetermined gift of nature. Her list of intellectual women, like Sabba of Ethiopia, Zenobia of Egypt, and Manto of Thebes, and their skills—prophecy, teaching, writing, and persuasion—, [15] interrupts the idea that men were the only ones capable of thinking and learning. The greatest challenge in teaching Spanish Colonialism is that almost all primary sources come from the perspective of Spanish conquistadors.

However, this is not to say that their perspective is useless. Indeed, this depiction of the Incas conflicts with the image painted in Chronicles of the Incas. Many textbooks also fail to connect what was going on in Europe and the Americas. While the power and influence of the revolutionary women is apparent, many textbooks make no reference to those women. The inhumanity and demoralization characterized in the systematic enslavement of Africans is often ignored in western civilization textbooks in favor of discussing the justifications of the act itself.

Many textbooks emphasize slavery as an economic benefit for the West, placing economic gain for white Europeans over humanity. Most textbooks isolate European and US slavery, as though they had separate origins. Western Civilizations argues slave labor both contributed significantly to agricultural production while simultaneously claiming dependency on slave labor decreased as technological developments enhanced manufacturing and industrialized the West.

Indeed, even when slaves, like Louisa Jenkins, were liberated, urban cities took advantage of many legal loopholes that allowed the hiring out of free black people who had outstanding fines or debts to the city. Through surveys of primary and secondary sources that more thoroughly depict the gruesomeness of the transatlantic slave trade, students can have a better understanding of slavery in a context less focused on its justifications.

While important to understand reasonings behind slave trade, it is equally important to know that such rationales do not validate or excuse slavery. However, nowhere does the text emphatically confront the radical nationalism held by members of the conservative right during this interwar period and how their rhetoric heavily influenced the masses. The Nazi Party Program shows this rhetoric in a twenty-five-point itinerary that compels race-based nationalism, anti-Semitic hate speech, and anti-capitalistic and anti-socialist rhetoric.

This source demonstrates the subtle nuances of nationalistic racism. It also contains many contradictions regarding economic theory and citizen rights and liberty that may otherwise guise themselves to the reader.

And how could one even begin to make comparative judgments? Who would be able to say, with any authority, that Plato is a greater political theorist than Mencius? How do we evaluate the art of Picasso against the creations of unknown African masters? What one can say with confidence is that Western civilization has had a massive influence across the globe, in all domains of life.

Not just in the United States, but across the Americas, and indeed on every continent, Western ideas about religion, science, politics, and art have had an unparalleled influence. 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 ; 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.

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. Copyright Year: E-Book PDF. Login via Institution.

Prices from excl. VAT :. View PDF Flyer. Contents About. Pages: i—xi. Pages: 1— Pages: 71— Pages: — Biographical Note Ricardo Duchesne , Ph. He has published numerous articles on the rise of the West.

The most significant and comprehensive contribution to a post-multicultural world history is to be found in the work of Ricardo Duchesne, particularly his new book The Uniqueness of Western Civilization Like its subject-matter, this book is unique, wide-ranging, and highly contentious.

Martin Hewson, Cliodynamics , Vol. Despite my stylistic critiques, the book shows a very wide range of scholarship and many deft syntheses. It is an impressive book. Thomas D. 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 H. It will certainly become an indispensable reference on the great passages of history. Like all history studies, the study of Western Civilization equips its students with critical thinking skills, analytical skills, and strong written and verbal communication skills. Currently offered at Tsinghua, the course Plato, Socrates, and the Birth of Western Philosophy, teaches the origins and development of Western societies, institutions, and thought from the ancient world through the Middle Ages.

You can also examine the role violence has played in the rise of Western Civilization by taking a course currently offered by the University of Newcastle Australia. A History of Violence examines the origins, changing nature, uses, and attitudes towards human violence in western history. Like many liberal arts degrees, a background in Western Civilization can be applied to a wide array of professional interests. The written and verbal communication skills gained by studying Western Civilization lend themselves to career opportunities in writing, editing, and research for popular media or in academia.

A strong Western Civilization background can similarly lead to a career in broadcast journalism.