The world and the West : the European challenge and the overseas response in the age of empire

This book is a study of the interaction of the Western societies of Europe and America with others around the world in the past two centuries - the age of European empire. It deals with the European threat and the non-Western response, but the focus is on the ways in which people in Asia, Africa, and Indian America have tried to adapt their ways of life to the overwhelming European power that existed in this period. The challenge and the response are presented through a series of selected and widely scattered case studies. They vary from those of the Maya and Yaqui of Mexico, to millennial responses as varied as the Ghost Dance or the cargo cults of Melanesia, as well as those of major players like the Ottoman Empire and Meiji Japan. Frontmatter Preface (page vii) Part One Conquest (page 1) 1 The Pattern of Empire (page 3) 2 Technology and Power (page 19) 3 The Politics of Imperialism (page 38) Part Two Culture Change and Imperial Rule (page 53) 4 Culture Change in Plural Societies: South Africa and Central Asia (page 57) 5 Culture Change in Mexico (page 73) 6 Administrative Choices and Their Consequences: Examples from Bengal, Central Asia, Java, and Malaya (page 92) Part Three Conversion (page 109) 7 Christian Missions in East Africa (page 111) 8 Varieties of Defensive Modernization (page 128) 9 Meiji Japan: Revolutionary Modernization (page 156) 10 Ottoman Reactions to the West (page 173) Part Four Independence and the Liquidation of Empires (page 193) 11 Non-European Resistance and the European Withdrawal (page 195) 12 Personal and Utopian Responses (page 213) 13 The Search for Viable Independence: Indonesia (page 232) 14 Paths to Viable Independence: Ghana (page 253) Afterword (page 275) Index (page 279)

This book studies the interaction between the empire-building West and the rest of the world.

The Boston Book Review - Edington

Philip Curtin has written a collection of provocative and learned essays examining, from a range of viewpoints, the complex interactions of empire and local cultures. It is left for readers not so much to admire his finished tapestry as to watch him at the weaver's loom, shaping richly textured and minutely detailed pieces of a larger image we are left to arrange for ourselves.

s/t: The European Challenge and the Overseas Response in the Age of Empire This book is a study of the interaction of the Western societies of Europe and America with others around the world in the past two centuries--the age of European empire. Through a variety of case studies, it considers the European threat and the non-Western response, but the focus is on the ways in which people in Asia, African, and Indian America have tried to adapt their ways of life to the overwhelming European power of the period.

This book is a study of the interaction of the Western societies of Europe and America with others around the world in the past two centuries—the age of European empire. Through a variety of case studies, it considers the European threat and the non-Western response, but the focus is on the ways in which people in Asia, African, and Indian America have tried to adapt their ways of life to the overwhelming European power of the period.

"The World and the West reaches from such diverse cases as the Maya and Yaqui of Mexico, the Ghost Dance of North America, cargo cults of Melanesia, to Meiji Japan and the Ottoman Empire. In discussing a variety of questions about the relations between the world and the West in recent centuries, Curtin ultimately introduces a new perspective on the underlying question: How do human societies change through time?"--Jacket The conventional history of European empire building not only lumps dissimilar experiences under the rubric of colonialism, but it often, and too readily, accepts convenient fictions, concocted by long-dead publicists, historians, and government officials, in place of reality. This book is a study of the interaction of the West with the rest of the world in the age of European empire. Its focus is on the ways in which people in Asia, Africa, and Indian America have tried to adapt to the overwhelming power of Europe.