[lit-ideas] Re: The Eastern Origins of Western Civilization
- From: "" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx" for DMARC)
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2014 13:02:32 -0400 (EDT)
Reporter (to Gandhi): In a nutshull, how would you describe Western
civilisation?
Gandhi: I think it would be a _good_ idea -- on the whole.
----- Cited in "The Book of British Humour".
In a message dated 6/4/2014 11:11:50 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx writes:
I have come across an interesting book titled the Eastern Origins of
Western Civilization. The author is one John M. Hobson, who says that he is
the
grandson of the more famous John A. Hobson of Imperialism. I was going to
post some quotes but the page doesn't let me copy/paste, so here is the URL
for those who are interested:
http://jozefdarski.pl/uploads/zalacznik/7134/optimtheeasternoriginsofwestern
civilization1.pdf
Thanks.
The book merits its own entry in Wikipedia,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Eastern_Origins_of_Western_Civilisation
from where I read ("I never read a book before reviewing it; it prejudices
one so!" Revd. S. Smith):
A reviewer for the Culture Mandala wrote Hobson's work "complements and
builds on the insights of Frank, Braudel and others to illustrate in great
detail both how substantial China's historical achievement has been and how
much the West has distorted history to serve the purpose of its imperial
civilizing mission".
John Hall of McGill University, writing in the English Historical Review,
claims that Hobson's work is prone to wild exaggerations and "tends to cite
only those parts of an author’s work that agree with his argument, and
misses out whole realms of scholarship". Hobson, Hall continues, "tends to
give
us bad sociology," and his construct of Eurocentrism is "often a straw
man." Generally, Hall remarks that Hobson makes "odd claims," such as
asserting that "Adam Smith depended upon Chinese intellectual discoveries".
Hall
claims that Hobson's "general picture seems to fail."
So one should check it out!
Cheers,
Speranza
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
