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Maybe someday
27
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
38/100Critics
16/100Scholars
Author:
NaoÃse Mac Sweeney
Publisher:
Dutton
Date:
May 23, 2023
NaoÃse Mac Sweeney delivers an exploration of how "Western Civilization"âthe concept of a single cultural inheritance extending from ancient Greece to modern timesâis a figment of our collective imagination.
What The Reviewers Say
Some of the figures in her gallery are well known (Herodotus, Francis Bacon), while others are more obscure.
All this is presented in fluent and accessible prose, and Ms. Mac Sweeney skillfully blends analysis, erudition and anecdote. Inevitably, in a book of this scope, there are some misfires.
One by one she takes on hoary old myths... explodes them with panache, and leaves us instead with a richer, fuller understanding of epochs, worldviews and fascinating individuals from the past.
Despite its title, The West: A new history of an old idea has little to say about the history of the idea of "the West".
