Why the Rest Hates the West - by Meic Pearse (Paperback)

About the Book

Writing from a more neutral position as a Briton, Pearse offers insights to help westerners understand how other countries, such as those in the Middle East, often view the politics and society of the western countries.

Book Synopsis

For anyone who's wondered why people around the world seem to hate the West so much, Historian Meic Pearse offers thoughtful, balanced and challenging answers. He shows how many of the underlying assumptions of Western civilization directly oppose and contradict the cultural and religious values of significant people groups and provides a starting point for dialogue and reconciliation.

Review Quotes

"I know of no more urgent discussion in our day. . . . Could someone please get a copy to George W. Bush?"

"Immensely rich insight, written nicely by a learned and penetrating thinker. This may be the best Christian reflection on the deeper questions around globalization, global culture wars and the great clash of civilizations I've yet seen. . . . If you've only got time for one book of this sort, pass by Chomsky and Perle. Skip narrow-minded ideologues like Michael Moore and Ann Coulter and read Meic Pearse. He is a thoughtful Christian who brings theological acumen and global sensitivities to his critique of modernity, and offers profound Christian insight as he unpacks the deep divides between the West and the rest."

"Meic Pearse has exposed our therapy culture in its failure to move us from self-absorption to the freedom of self-esteem found when we truly serve others. . . . This book is necessary reading for all who would be responsible leaders and informed Christians in the twenty-first century."

"Meic Pearse specializes in asking difficult questions about the most significant issues facing us today--about religions, about politics, and about how cultures and societies come into conflict. . . . This is a challenging, provocative book, with a broad social and historical vision."

"Pearse succeeds in providing an easy to understand, clearly defined introduction to sources of conflict between the Western and non-Western worlds."

"Pearse succeeds in providing an easy to understand, clearly defined introduction to sources of conflict between the Western and non-Western worlds."

--Mike Starasta for The Christian Librarian 50, no. 1 (2007)

"This book is a serious and stirring call to Christians to reaffirm the central position of their faith. In an age which mistakes nescience for open-mindedness and enforced nihilism for toleration, this call to know, to affirm and to witness deserves a wide audience."

"This is . . . possibly the best, most intelligent, most humane brief argument that the West, rather than the Rest, needs reform."

"This is . . . possibly the best, most intelligent, most humane brief argument that the West, rather than the Rest, needs reform."

--Booklist (starred review), June 1, 2004

"This is a passionate, unfashionable and important book, recommended reading for anybody who has begun to suspect that the Western economic and cultural project is unsustainable."

"Those who wish to place some of the cultural crisis in the West in larger cultural and historical context will find much food for thought, and the book is useful for stimulating discussion. Whether one agrees with Pearse's analysis of Western culture, his assertion that non-Western values will increasingly demand serious attention in the West can hardly be disputed."

"Those who wish to place some of the cultural crisis in the West in larger cultural and historical context will find much food for thought, and the book is useful for stimulating discussion. Whether one agrees with Pearse's analysis of Western culture, his assertion that non-Western values will increasingly demand serious attention in the West can hardly be disputed."

--Missiology, October 2007

About the Author

Meic Pearse, originally from Britain, now lives in Croatia and the United States, where he is professor of history at Houghton College in Houghton, New York. He studied history and English at Swansea, University of Wales, and management studies at the Polytechnic of Wales. He took his M.Phil. and D.Phil. in ecclesiastical history at Oxford University. For more than a decade, he was involved as part of a team establishing a new church in Swansea. He has also made pipe valves in a German factory, served as a tax collector in local government, taught business studies at a Jewish school, taught history and economics in a Quaker institution, and lectured in church history in Britain and the Balkans. Books he has written include Between Known Men and Visible Saints, The Great Restoration, Who's Feeding Whom? and We Must Stop Meeting Like This. He has articles published in Church History, Anabaptism Today, Third Way and other periodicals.