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About this book
The term "civilization" comes with considerable baggage, dichotomizing people, cultures, and histories as "civilized"āor not. While the idea of civilization has been deployed throughout history to justify all manner of interventions and sociopolitical engineering, few scholars have stopped to consider what the concept actually means. Here, Brett Bowden examines how the idea of civilization has informed our thinking about international relations over the course of ten centuries.
From the Crusades to the colonial era to the global war on terror, this sweeping volume exposes "civilization" as a stage-managed account of history that legitimizes imperialism, uniformity, and conformity to Western standards, culminating in a liberal-democratic global order. Along the way, Bowden explores the variety of confrontations and conquestsāas well as those peoples and places excluded or swept asideāundertaken in the name of civilization. Concluding that the "West and the rest" have more commonalities than differences,this provocative and engaging bookultimately points the way toward an authentic intercivilizational dialogue that emphasizes cooperation over clashes.
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Table of contents
- Contents
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- A Note on Spelling
- 1 Introduction: Guizotās Question: Universal Civilization?
- Part One: Civilization, Progress, and History: Universals All?
- Part Two: The Art and Science of Empire
- Part Three: New Barbarism, Old Civilization, Revived Imperialism
- 9 Conclusion: The Future of Intercivilizational Relations
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index