The idea of the West : culture, politics, and history / Alastair Bonnett.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bonnett, Alastair, 1964-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Civilization, Western.

East and West.

Physical Description:

x, 201 pages : maps ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Summary:

What is the West? Whose idea is it? And why is it at the centre of political and cultural debate across the globe? This book provides the first truly international study of the idea of the West. Drawing on sources from Russia to Japan, Iran to Britain, it shows how and why 'the West' has been created and stereotyped. The Idea of the West explains how the great political and ethnic forces of the twentieth century defined themselves in relation to the West. Thus, in a series of provocative yet accessible studies, it shows that the history of racial whiteness, Soviet communism, 'Asian spirituality', 'Asian values' and radical Islamism are all inseparable from the ideologies of occidentalism. Both topical and wide-ranging, The Idea of the West offers a fascinating and highly readable account of one of the central concepts of our era.

Contents:

The West: ancient and modern 4

Knowing the West 6

Geography and the world 7

The West in context: chapters in a global history 11

1 From White to Western: 'Racial Decline' and the Rise of the Idea of the West in Britain, 1890-1930 14

White decay 15

The West's West: beginnings 23

The Western path out of white crisis 26

2 Communists Like Us: The Idea of the West in the Soviet Union 40

The West versus communism 42

Russia's West 44

The revolutionary West 47

The Western enemy 53

The 'kidnapped West' and Russia's 'return' 56

3 Good-bye Asia: The Westernisers' West, Fukuzawa and Gokalp 63

The uses of the West 64

Fukuzawa Yukichi: occidentalism and nationalism in Japan 66

Ziya Gokalp: finding Turkey, inventing the West 70

4 Soulless Occident/Spiritual Asia: Tagore's West 79

Asia is one: the West as spiritual void 81

Who wants to be Asian? The failure of Tagore's mission to the East 88

Asian spirituality: transcending the West 95

Conclusions: Tagore and modernity 103

5 From Soulless to Slacker: The Idea of the West from Pan-Asianism to Asian Values 107

Introduction: forget Tagore 107

Pan-Asianism: Eastern redemption, Western nationalism 109

The slacker West and Asian values 112

6 Occidental Utopia: The Neo-Liberal West 123

Social democracy: the unproclaimed West 125

Westernisation: victory in defeat 128

Neo-liberal democracy: Western triumph and Western blueprint 131

Conclusions: the vulnerability of the neo-liberal model 139

7 Western Dystopia: Radical Islamism and Anti-Westernism 143

The clash of utopias? 144

The Islamisation of anti-Westernism 145

Conclusions: Islamism and neo-liberal globalisation 160.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 179-194) and index.

ISBN:

1403900345

1403900353

OCLC:

55510723