The Myth of Western Civilization : The West as an Ideological Category and a Political Myth

The Myth of Western Civilization: The West as an Ideological Category and a Political Myth has set for itself two different but complementary targets. The first is to show that what is commonly taken as a historical given, "Western Civilization", is actually an ideological construction that has come to absorb the most disparate of contents. It is a common acceptance to intend Western Civilization as the liberal-democratic way of life and capitalist economy that apply in Euro-America. Many among those who believe in the existence and paramountcy of Western Civilization at the same time sustain that Western Civilization can be traced back at the very dawn of Europe and that, depending on who makes the claim, it can be linked to the birth of Greece and Rome and, successively, to Christianity and democracy, often establishing relationships between these varying cultures. While showing the difficulty of considering them instances of the same historical event,The Myth of the Westhighlights the essential contribution by civilizations like the Phoenician and the Arab to the development of the classical world and modern Europe.