How the World Made the West - by Josephine Quinn (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In How the World Made the West, Oxford historian and classicist Josephine Quinn poses perhaps the most significant challenge ever to the "civilizational" thinking regarding the origins of Western culture and thought-that is, the idea that civilizations arose separately and distinctly from one another. Upending two centuries of conventional historiography and troubling the waters of our Western origin story, she locates the roots of the West in everything from literature from Sumeria, the law codes of Babylon, metallurgy from the Hittites, to sculpture from Egypt, irrigation from Assyria, and the art of navigation and the alphabet from Phoenicia, to name just a few examples. Rather than the very popular "West and the rest" view of history, Quinn demonstrates that cultures come to life by borrowing heavily from others, near and far. Reducing the backstory of the modern west to a narrative that focuses on, or even begins with, Greece and Rome reveals an impoverished view of the past. Our west-centric understanding of modern history would have made no sense to the ancient Greeks and Romans themselves. Instead, ancient authors understood and talked about their own connections to and borrowings from others, and they consistently present their own history as the result of contact and exchange. Quinn builds on the writings they left behind, through rich analyses of ancient literary sources like the epic of Gilgamesh, holy texts, and newly discovered records revealing details about ancient life that are constantly emerging from archival research in the waterlogged sites of the north and the sands of the desert. A work of breath-taking scholarship, How the World Made the West also draws on the material culture of the times in art and artifacts as well as findings from the latest scientific advances in carbon dating and human genetics to thoroughly debunk the myth of the modern West as a self-made miracle"--

Book Synopsis

An award-winning Oxford history professor "makes a forceful argument and tells a story with great verve" (The Wall Street Journal)--that the West is, and always has been, truly global.

"Those archaic 'Western Civ' classes so many of us took in college should be updated, argues Quinn, [who] invites us to . . . revel in a richer, more polyglot inheritance."--The Boston Globe

AN ECONOMIST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

In How the World Made the West, Josephine Quinn poses perhaps the most significant challenge ever to the "civilizational thinking" regarding the origins of Western culture--that is, the idea that civilizations arose separately and distinctly from one another. Rather, she locates the roots of the modern West in everything from the law codes of Babylon, Assyrian irrigation, and the Phoenician art of sail to Indian literature, Arabic scholarship, and the metalworking riders of the Steppe, to name just a few examples.

According to Quinn, reducing the backstory of the modern West to a narrative that focuses on Greece and Rome impoverishes our view of the past. This understanding of history would have made no sense to the ancient Greeks and Romans themselves, who understood and discussed their own connections to and borrowings from others. They consistently presented their own culture as the result of contact and exchange. Quinn builds on the writings they left behind with rich analyses of other ancient literary sources like the epic of Gilgamesh, holy texts, and newly discovered records revealing details of everyday life. A work of breathtaking scholarship, How the World Made the West also draws on the material culture of the times in art and artifacts as well as findings from the latest scientific advances in carbon dating and human genetics to thoroughly debunk the myth of the modern West as a self-made miracle.

In lively prose and with bracing clarity, as well as through vivid maps and color illustrations, How the World Made the West challenges the stories the West continues to tell about itself. It redefines our understanding of the Western self and civilization in the cosmopolitan world of today.

Review Quotes

"Compelling . . . The book makes a forceful argument and tells a story with great verve: Classical Greece and Rome owed an enormous cultural debt to the societies that preceded them and surrounded them. Therefore, notions that these cultures are the sole and direct ancient progenitors of the modern West are blinkered. We need a new kind of ancient history. . . . Ms. Quinn's book points to a possible path forward, toward a more expansive version of ancient history."--The Wall Street Journal

"Those archaic 'Western Civ' classes so many of us took in college should be updated, argues Quinn, an Oxford professor of ancient history. She invites us to widen our scope and see the influence of Phoenicia, Assyria, and India, and to revel in a richer, more polyglot inheritance."--The Boston Globe

"Josephine Quinn ranges wide with [her] broad survey of world history. The Oxford history professor shows how the West has always been remarkably global, detailing examples from the past 4000 years if you doubt it. Your high school teacher may have said it all began with Greece and Rome. But Greece and Rome knew how much they learned by interacting with the rest of the world. From Arabic scholarship (surely we all know their primacy in maths) to Assyrian irrigation, the countless examples of ideas beginning in one place and soon darting all over the world are fascinating."--Parade

"As our leaders and pundits glorify 'Western Civilization' and excoriate migration and wokeness, Josephine Quinn offers a momentous correction: the Greeks and Romans were hodgepodge people, and if we are their heirs it is only because of globe-spanning connections that always produce multifarious ways of life. . . . Brilliant and essential."--Samuel Moyn, author of Liberalism Against Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times

"Bold, beautifully written, and filled with insights, How the World Made the West demands that we challenge traditional views of the past. An extraordinary achievement."--Peter Frankopan, bestselling author of The Earth Transformed

"One of the most fascinating works of global history to appear for many years . . . incredibly ambitious and wide-ranging . . . allowing us to understand just how globalized and interconnected mankind has always been."--William Dalrymple, bestselling author of The Anarchy

"Engaging, aspirational, and inspirational, How the World Made the West will be devoured by history buffs and should be required reading for those arguing for the supremacy of 'Western Civilization' as well as those arguing for its demise and dismantling, and everyone in between."--Eric Cline, author of 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed

"The book traces the stories of an imposing array of different early cultures, always focusing on their relations with others and how each of them drew on their predecessors and contemporaries. Quinn makes a point of reexamining many of the familiar landmarks of ancient history. . . . Even readers with a fairly good knowledge of history are likely to learn something new. . . . A fascinating look at world history from the broadest possible perspective."--Kirkus Review, starred review

About the Author

Josephine Quinn is Professor of Ancient History at Oxford University and Martin Frederiksen Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History at Worcester College, Oxford. She has degrees from Oxford and University of California, Berkeley; has taught in America, Italy, and the UK; and co-directed the Tunisian-British archaeological excavations at Utica. She is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books and The New York Review of Books, as well as to radio and television programs. She is the author of one previous book, the award-winning In Search of the Phoenicians, and lives in Oxford.