Week One
Outline Lecture One—Introduction to Course Themes
Focus of lecture:
1) The origin and impact of the “Rise of the West” mythology
2) Recent challenges to this Eurocentric narrative
3) Towards a more inclusive, polycentric theory of “globalization”?
I) “Rise of the West” Master Narrative
a) The Myth of European Exceptionalism
i) View of traditional Eurocentric historians regarding Western culture’s “uniqueness”
ii) Binary opposition of European dynamism vs. “oriental” paralysis
(1) Though prior to the 13th century, medieval Europe steeped in religious fatalism
(a) Seeing this world as “vale of tears”
(2) But from the 13th century on, Europe shed this ideology of renunciation
(a) “Only in the west does one witness…”
iii) Yet begs the question: Was the rest of the world EVER mired in the same type of
religious renunciation that permeated medieval Europe?
b) Worldly Engagement in the East
i) Cultural and philosophical assumptions in non-Western cultures:
(1) None exhibited a default adherence to the status quo
(2) None seemed to value or celebrate stagnation
ii) Evidence in commercial wealth and networks
(1) The Impact of Pax Mongolica
(a) The linking of “world economies” or networks (see map)
(b) Polycentrism—interdependence without hegemony
(2) Commercial networks followed very similar protocols of trade
(3) By 12th century, already evidence of mass production and vibrant commerce
(a) Commercial scene from 12th century China—city of Kaifeng
(b) http://www.npm.gov.tw/exh96/orientation/index4_1_en.html
c) Sources of this Myth of European Exceptionalism
i) Impact of 19th century European imperialism on history
ii) Assumptions of “an inherent historical necessity”
iii) The Denial of “Coevalness”
iv) Diffusionist Theory
d) Do these perspectives still inform global politics today?
i) The West makes history—others merely react as part of that history
ii) Relevance for the fate of the 21st century
(1) How we explain the past directly impacts how we shape the future
II) Explanations for “The Rise of the West”
a) David Buck’s “Was it Pluck or Luck that Made the West Grow Rich?”
i) David Landes’s “European Exceptionalism” argument
(1) “Rise of the West” due to Europe’s unique cultural heritage
(2) Risk-taking, entrepreneurial spirit, worldly rationality
ii) Andre Gunder Frank “Historical Discontinuity” argument
(1) More a “discontinuity” than a pre-ordained “inevitability”
iii) R. Bin Wong’s “Separate Trajectories” argument
(1) No shared or universal “meta-narrative” for what “progress” means
(2) Need to “go beyond asking European-derived questions,” such as “Why did China
fail where Europe succeeded?”