Overview

Sophie Bessis tells the story of the West‘s relationship with the world it came to dominate - from the conquest of the Americas, through the slave trade and the Scramble for Africa, the White Man‘s burden, Manifest Destiny and the growth of scientific racism, to decolonisation, the ideology of development and structural adjustment. Western Supremacy is the history of colonial and developmentalist thought. Starting with the Enlightenment idea of universality it traces how this facilitated a notion of the West rooted in a Hellenic inheritance systematically shorn of Egyptian or Arab influences. Though the hierarchy of races has now given way to the hierarchy of development, Bessis argues that developmentalism is the new incarnation of the West‘s paradoxical aspiration to lead the world into universalism whilst maintaining its own supremacy. An extraordinary tour-de-force which will fascinate everybody who has an interest in globalization, development and the history of ideas.

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9781842772188

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Reviews

'The author‘s deep understanding of the societies of the South helps her avoid facile judgements. * Alternatives Economiques * A complex and original picture of international relations. * Le Monde des Livres * An extraordinary work of intellectual history, beautifully written, raising the most profound questions about that sacred cow, Western Civilization. I hope her book will be widely read. * Howard Zinn * This book glows with lucid anger - and impatience with the confusions offered us not only by the proponents of Western supremacy but by many of its supposed opponents. * Immanuel Wallerstein * A particularly stimulating work, which traces the evolution of the modern West from its renaissance roots to its most recent avatar. * Télérama *

'An extraordinary work of intellectual history, beautifully written, raising the most profound questions about that sacred cow, Western Civilization. I hope her book will be widely read.' Howard Zinn 'A complex and original picture of international relations.' Le Monde des Livres 'The author`s deep understanding of the societies of the South helps her avoid facile judgements.' Alternatives Economiques 'A particularly stimulating work, which traces the evolution of the modern West from its renaissance roots to its most recent avatar.' Telerama 'This book glows with lucid anger - and impatience with the confusions offered us not only by the proponents of Western supremacy but by many of its supposed opponents.' Immanuel Wallerstein

Sophie Bessis has given us an extraordinary work of intellectual history, beautifully written, raising the most profound questions about that sacred cow, Western Civilization. Her book appears exactly at the moment when it is most needed, when the United States is pretending that its enormous military and economic power has a moral foundation. Bessis analysis shatters that claim. I hope her book will be widely read. - Howard Zinn, Professor Emeritus, Boston University and author of A People's History of the United States Bessis, by turns historian, economist and journalist, offers a complex and original picture of international relations. A work of great quality that confronts the ambiguities of globalization. - Le Monde des Livres A fascinating essay, which asks all the right questions. - Le Nouvel Observateur The author's deep understanding of the societies of the South helps her avoid facile judgements. - Alternatives Economiques A particularly stimulating work, which traces the evolution of the modern West from its renaissance roots to its most recent avatar. - Telerama This book glows with lucid anger - and impatience with the confusions offered us not only by the proponents of Western supremacy but by many of its supposed opponents. Urgent reading about the inequalities of our world today and how the West's 500-year adventure has shaped and distorted our visions and aspirations. - Immanuel Wallerstein, Yale University

Author Information

Sophie Bessis has held a number of important editorial and other posts, including head of research and editor in chief of Jeune Afrique, director of the Panos Institute in Paris and editor of Vivre Autrement.

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