Product Description

This volume examines and critiques the work of a diverse group of Euricentric historians who have strongly shaped our understanding of world history

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #274439 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 228 pages

Review
'This is a significant work, one that is sure to be both widely read and controversial. Blaut contends with some major thinkers whose work has been relatively unchallenged. He takes strong critical positions and backs them up thoroughly.' - Ronald H. Chilcote, University of California, USA

'This book is original...timely, well-written, and accessible. I Would recommend it for capstone undergraduate history coursed and for introductory graduate-level courses in world history.' - Peter Gran, Temple University,

From the Back Cover
This volume examines and critiques the work of a diverse group of Eurocentric historians who have strongly shaped our understanding of world history. Building upon the foundations laid in his previous book, THE COLONIZER'S MODEL OF THE WORLD, which provided a systematic overview of the nature and evolution of Eurocentrism, Blaut focuses in depth on Max Weber, Lynn White, Jr., Robert Brenner, Eric L. Jones, Michael Mann, John A. Hall, Jared Diamond, and David Landes. The role of each of these thinkers in generating colonialist understandings of history is described, and the fallacious assumptions at the roots of their arguments are revealed. Working toward an alternative understanding of the origins of modernity, this clearly written book provides invaluable insights and tools for readers across a range of disciplines.

Customer Reviews

Useful and inspiring criticism of Eurocentrism in history
James Blaut's "Eight Eurocentric Historians" is part 2 in his three-part series on what he calls the 'colonizer's model of the world', that is, the Eurocentrism of many historians, anthropologists and social scientists when discussing the sources of Europe's rise to power and its influence on the rest of the world. Too often, Blaut emphasizes, do people see Europe as some sort of natural center of the world, from which all innovation and all values flow, and to which others can only respond (by acceptance or resistance); too often also is Europe perceived as somehow perpetually more advanced, free, innovative etc. than any other society, even when the facts are emphatically otherwise. It is very hard for people to shed the view that sometimes people who aren't white European males can defeat them in battle, invent things before they do, create more wealthy and egalitarian societies and discover new lands.

This, then, is the topic of Blaut's critiques of eight Eurocentric historians, many of them popularly acclaimed. The historians are, in sequence: Max Weber, Lynn White, Robert Brenner, Eric Jones, Michael Mann, John Hall, Jared Diamond, and David Landes. Each of them is guilty of an array of Eurocentric errors, and in some cases even fallacies, ignorant reasonings and outright pseudo-racism. Most of Blaut's critiques are forceful and excellent and he totally demolishes the conservative, pro-imperialist nonsense of people like Landes and Jones. Less convincing is his case against Robert Brenner, which relies strongly on issues disputed very much among specialists, and which can be judged very poorly by any outsider. One wonders if Blaut was wise to include Brenner in a list like this, all the more since Brenner is not at all as obviously racist and silly as people like Landes, and hardly deserves to be named in one list with him. On the other hand, useful compensation for this is the all too lenient critique of Jared Diamond, whose works have re-popularized totally discredited environmental determinist theories of European superiority under the guise of anti-racism, and whose influence on 'sophisticated' intellectuals is quite strong.

Sometimes Blaut himself also goes overboard, as when he approvingly cites the discredited Martin Bernal, and he seems to me somewhat knee-jerkingly unwilling to countenance the importance of the spread of the heavy plow in the early Middle Ages. But these are minor issues. Overall, this work is a much needed corrective, and the 'checklist' of 30 fallacious arguments used in favor of Eurocentrist theories is very useful. This book belongs on the bookshelf of everyone who desires to be a critical thinker on history and politics.