The Rise of Western Power: A Comparative History of Western Civilization

Description

In this second edition of The Rise of Western Power, Jonathan Daly retains the broad sweep of his introduction to the history of Western civilization as well as introducing new material into every chapter, enhancing the book's global coverage and engaging with the latest historical debates. The West's history is one of extraordinary success: no other region, empire, culture, or civilization has left so powerful a mark upon the world. Daly charts the West's achievements-representative government, the free enterprise system, modern science, and the rule of law-as well as its misdeeds: two World Wars, the Holocaust, imperialistic domination, and the Atlantic slave trade. Taking us through a series of revolutions, he explores the contributions of other cultures and civilizations to the West's emergence, weaving in historical, geographical, and cultural factors. The new edition also contains more material on themes such as the environment and gender, and additional coverage of India, China and the Islamic world. Daly's engaging narrative is accompanied by timelines, maps and further reading suggestions, along with a companion website featuring study questions, over 100 primary sources and 60 historical maps to enable further study.

Jonathan Daly is Professor of History at the University of Illinois, Chicago, USA. He is the author of Historians Debate the Rise of the West (2015).

Jonathan Daly's new odyssey of the rise of the West represents a renewed effort to map up the internal conditions that have made the West so special in the world history. The author's panorama view which covers the whole spectrum of the factors in favour of the West can be boiled down to a single term: 'revolutions', either in human mind or in social institutions and they came one after another tirelessly since the previously misunderstood 'Dark Ages'. In this context, lucks and chances played much less important role, if at all. The author's narrative therefore spells out the secret of the rise of the West in a highly consistent and coherent fashion. Curious reader may of course ask where the drive for so many revolutions in the West has come from. This will be the author's next project, hopefully. * Kent Deng, Professor of Economic History, London School of Economics, UK * How did Western Europe, which was once less developed than the Muslim world and China, become scientific and economic leader of the world? Jonathan Daly's comprehensive and incisive book effectively analyzes not only the rise of Western arts, philosophy, printing, navigation, science, political institutions, and technology, but also Western vices such as colonization, slavery, and wars. * Ahmet T. Kuru, Professor of Political Science, San Diego State University, USA *