Worlds at War, Anthony Pagden
Worlds at War, Anthony Pagden
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Worlds at War
The 2,500-Year Struggle Between East and West

Author: Anthony Pagden

Narrator: John Lee

Unabridged: 20 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/25/2008


Synopsis

In the tradition of Jared Diamond and Jacques Barzun, prize-winning historian Anthony Pagden presents a sweeping history of the long struggle between East and West, from the Greeks to the present day.

The relationship between East and West has always been one of turmoil. In this historical tour de force, a renowned historian leads us from the world of classical antiquity, through the Dark Ages, to the Crusades, Europe's resurgence, and the dominance of the Ottoman Empire, which almost shattered Europe entirely. Pagden travels from Napoleon in Egypt to Europe's carving up of the finally moribund Ottomans—creating the modern Middle East along the way—and on to the present struggles in Iraq.

Throughout we learn a tremendous amount about what "East" and "West" were and are, and how it has always been competing worldviews and psychologies, more than religion or power grabs, that have fed the mistrust and violence between East and West. In Pagden's dark but provocative view, this struggle cannot help but go on.

About Anthony Pagden

Anthony Pagden has been a fellow of Merton College, Oxford; University Reader in Intellectual History at Cambridge University; a fellow of King's College; and the Harry C. Black Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University. He is currently a professor in the history and political science departments at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of numerous prize-winning books on European imperialism and the European understanding of non-European cultures. Among his recent publications are Peoples and Empires and Europeans and the Rest of the World. He also contributes regularly to the Times Literary Supplement, the London Review of Books, the New Republic, the Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times. He lives in Los Angeles.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Riku on September 07, 2015

Two core principles of difference are drawn out in the course of all the selective history that is presented: 1. The West was the realm of individual freedom and the East was the realm of despotism. Hence the East could never develop incentives. (Italics are my extrapolation) 2. The West was the realm......more

Goodreads review by Beauregard on July 21, 2014

The author's make-believe take on the East excludes India, barely mentioned, and China and Japan, mentioned even less. By the East he means the Persian Empire and the Islamic middle east. He has a fantasy that the history of the world can be described by the "battle line drawn" between Europe and th......more

Goodreads review by Boudewijn on August 30, 2024

Brilliant analysis of East-West historical dynamics The relationship between the West (defined in this book as Europe and later on North-America) and the East (defined in this book as the Middle East) has been marked by conflict, competition, and cultural misunderstandings. This book traces the histo......more

Goodreads review by William on January 12, 2010

Choose the right theme and you can organize the chaotic sweep of history into a coherent tale the reader can grasp. Anthony Pagden tried his best in "Worlds at War--The 2,500-Year Struggle Between East and West." But I have to wonder if the topic was too big for the book. Pagden's thesis is deceptive......more