num_pages: 432
description: Finally the Truth about the Rise of the WestModernity developed only in the Westin Europe and North America. Nowhere else did science and democracy arise; nowhere else was slavery outlawed. Only Westerners invented chimneys musical scores telescopes eyeglasses pianos electric lights aspirin and soap.The question is Why?Unfortunately that question has become so politically incorrect that most scholars avoid it. But acclaimed author Rodney Stark provides the answers in this sweeping new look at Western civilization.How the West Won demonstrates the primacy of uniquely Western ideasamong them the belief in free will the commitment to the pursuit of knowledge the notion that the universe functions according to rational rules that can be discovered and the emphasis on human freedom and secure property rights.Taking readers on a thrilling journey from ancient Greece to the present Stark challenges much of the received wisdom about Western history. Stark also debunks absurd fabrications that have flourished in the past few decades: that the Greeks stole their culture from Africa; that the Wests discoveries were copied from the Chinese and Muslims; that Europe became rich by plundering the non-Western world. At the same time he reveals the woeful inadequacy of recent attempts to attribute the rise of the West to purely material causesfavorable climates abundant natural resources guns and steel.How the West Won displays Rodney Starks gifts for lively narrative history and making the latest scholarship accessible to all readers. This bold insightful book will force you to rethink your understanding of the West and the birth of modernityand to recognize that Western civilization really has set itself apart from other cultures.
language: English
title: How the West Won: The Neglected Story of the Triumph of Modernity
publisher: ISI Books