What the Rest Think of the West: Since 600 ADOver the past few centuries, as Western civilization has enjoyed an expansive and flexible geographic domain, Westerners have observed other cultures with little interest in a return gaze. In turn, these other civilizations have been similarly disinclined when they have held sway. Clearly, though, an external frame of reference outstrips introspection—we cannot see ourselves as others see us. Unprecedented in its scope, What the Rest Think of the West provides a rich historical look through the eyes of outsiders as they survey and scrutinize the politics, science, technology, religion, family practices, and gender roles of civilizations not their own. The book emphasizes the broader figurative meaning of looking west in the scope of history. Focusing on four civilizations—Islamic, Japanese, Chinese, and South Asian—Nader has collected observations made over centuries by scholars, diplomats, missionaries, travelers, merchants, and students reflecting upon their own “Wests.” These writings derive from a range of purposes and perspectives, such as the seventh-century Chinese Buddhist who goes west to India, the missionary from Baghdad who travels up the Volga in the tenth century and meets the Vikings, and the Egyptian imam who in 1826 is sent to Paris to study the French. The accounts variously express critique, adoration, admiration, and fear, and are sometimes humorous, occasionally disturbing, at times controversial, and always enlightening. With informative introductions to each of the selections, Laura Nader initiates conversations about the power of representational practices. |
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Contents
From The Crusades through Arab Eyes | 10 |
From Napoleon in Egypt | 28 |
An Imam in Paris | 47 |
On the Music of the Maltese and of Others | 63 |
From Orientalism | 86 |
The President of Irans Letter to the President of the United States | 103 |
Empire as Everyday Life Everyday Life as Imperialism | 118 |
part two chinese travelers and their observations | 135 |
Be Nice to the Countries That Lend You Money | 235 |
part three indian travelers and their observations | 263 |
Remarks on Settlement in India by Europeans | 279 |
My Impressions of England | 285 |
The Condition of England and Civilization | 318 |
Indian Economic Policy | 335 |
The Eurocentric History of Science and Multicultural | 348 |
From The Thistle and the Drone | 362 |
Two Poems | 153 |
American Democracy in Crisis and The Collapse | 173 |
From Americans and Chinese | 193 |
Some Thoughts on Certain Aspects of Modern Western Culture | 213 |
From A Secret Plan of Government and Tales of the West | 380 |
From The Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa | 406 |
| 423 | |
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Bibliographic information
| Title | What the Rest Think of the West: Since 600 AD |
| Editor | Laura Nader |
| Edition | illustrated, reprint |
| Publisher | Univ of California Press, 2015 |
| ISBN | 0520285786, 9780520285781 |
| Length | 472 pages |
| Subjects | › › Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |