The West

Resumen del libro

A bold, sweeping bird's eye view of thousands of years of history that provides a truly global perspective of the past. A fantastic achievement. Peter Frankopan, internationally bestselling author of The Silk Roads

Prize-winning historian Naoíse Mac Sweeney delivers a captivating exploration of how Western Civilization the concept of a single cultural inheritance extending from ancient Greece to modern times is a powerful figment of our collective imagination. An urgently needed emergent voice in big history, she offers a bold new account of Western history, real and imagined, through the lives of fourteen remarkable individuals.

In this groundbreaking, story-driven retelling of Western history, Naoíse Mac Sweeney debunks the myths and origin stories that underpin the history we thought we knew. Told through fourteen figures who each played a role in the creation of the Western idea from Herodotus, a mixed-race migrant, to Phylis Wheatley, an enslaved African American who became a literary sensation; and from Gladstone, with a private passion for epic poetry, to the medieval Arab scholar Al-Kindi the subjects are a mind-expanding blend of unsung heroes and familiar faces viewed afresh. These characters span the millennia and the continents, representing different religions, varying levels of wealth and education, diverse traditions and nationalities. Each life tells us something unexpected about the age in which it was lived and offers us a piece of the puzzle of how the modern idea of the West developed and why we've misunderstood it for too long.

The concept of the West is present in every daily interaction you have, from entertainment and politics to world markets and world history. This engagingly intimate history will reshape the way you see the world around you. At this moment of civilizational redefinition, if we are to chart a future for the West, we must properly understand its past.

Biografía del autor

Naoíse Mac Sweeney es una galardonada arqueóloga e historiadora. Se graduó en Clásicas en la Universidad de Cambridge, completó un máster en Historia Antigua en la University College London y se doctoró por la Universidad Cambridge.<br> Actualmente es profesora de Arqueología Clásica en la Universidad de Viena, pero también ha sido docente en las universidades de Leicester y Cambridge y ha estudiado en el Centro de Estudios Helénicos de la Universidad de Harvard.<br> Su investigación se centra en la construcción de la identidad individual y de comunidad, y en la interacción social a través de la práctica cultural desde la Edad de Hierro. Su especialización también incluye los períodos clásicos del mundo griego y Anatolia.<br> Ha recibido múltiples premios por sus investigaciones a lo largo de su carrera, como el Philip Leverhulme Prize en 2015, ha participado en programas de radio y televisión y es la editora principal de la revista académica Anatolian Studies.