T

HE 

U

NIQUENESS OF 

W

ESTERN 

C

IVILIZATION

 

 

Ricardo Duchesne 

 
C

ONTENTS

 

 

Preface 

 

Chapter One  

The Fall of Western Civilization and the Rise of Multicultural 

World History  

 
Early World Historians and the Idea of Progress  
Termination of the Western Civilization Course 
World History Texts from the 1920s to the 1940s 
World History Texts in the 1960s 
Rise of Dependency Theory 
Wallerstein‟s World-System and Critical Theory 
Franz Boas‟s Relativism and Marvin Harris‟s Cultural Materialism 
The Conversion of William McNeill: From “Rise of the West” to “Interactive Webs” 
Cultural Relativism, Scientific Materialism, and Humanism Combined 
The Exclusion of Sociobiology  
Kant‟s “unsocial sociability” 
Progress and the State of Nature 
Dynamic Man versus Reactive Man 
The Ascendancy of Multicultural World Historians 
Patrick Manning: It Takes an African Village to Write World History 
Disparaging the West: Felipe Fernandez-Armesto 
 

Chapter Two 

Eurocentrism over Sinocentrism 

 
The Basic Empirical Claims of the Revisionists 
The Two Arguments of 

Re-Orient

. 

One Asian World System? 
The Role of Colonial Profits  
Trade, Power, 

and

 Liberty: the Secret of British Imperial Success 

China‟s “high-level equilibrium trap” 
The “Geographical Limits” of China‟s Post-1400 Extensive Growth 
Was Eighteenth Century Europe following a Malthusian path?  
Was traditional China a Low Fertility Regime? 
Conclusion 
 

Chapter Three 

Whence the Industrial Divergence? 

 
The Basic Propositions of Pomeranz‟s “Great Divergence” 
Malthus was Born too Late in a World too New 
End of the Old Malthusian Regime in England 
Standard-of-Living Debate 

New World Resources versus European Resources  
Was Cheap Coal Sufficient or Necessary? 
Dynamic Rather than Static Comparisons  
China‟s Ecological Endowments and Imperial Windfalls 
 

Chapter Four 

The Continuous Creativity of Europe 

 
Hobson and the Eastern Origins of the West 
Eurocentric Historians 
Imitation, Innovation, and Invention 
Revolution in Time 
The Printing Revolution 
The Science and Chivalry of Henry the Navigator 
Columbus and the Cartographic Revolution 
The Industrial Enlightenment 
Goldstone‟s “Happy Chance” versus Jacob‟s Scientific Ethos 
Contingency versus Long Term Patterns 
Europe‟s Solo Act: A Mercantile-Militaristic State? 
Military Revolutions in Europe 1300-1800   
The Inter-State System 
Greek Hoplites and the “Western Way of War” 
Mercantilism and the Birth of Political Economy 
Liberty and the States System 
 

Chapter Five 

The „Rise‟ of Western Reason and Freedom 

 
The West is more than Wealth and Power 
The Cultural Poverty of the Revisionists 
The Cultural Richness of Max Weber 
Judaism and its Contribution to Western Rationalism   
Schluchter on the Genetic Developmental Dynamic of the West 
Habermas and the Rationalization of Substantive Values 
The Liberal Democratic Ideals of the West and its Historiography 
 

Chapter Six   

The Restlessness of the Western Spirit from a Hegelian 

Perspective  

 
Change without Progress in the East 
Measuring Human Accomplishments 
The Historiography of Europe‟s Revolutions 
Phenomenology of the 

Western

 Spirit 

Hegel and the Geographical Basis of the “infinite thirst” of the West 
Hegel and the Beginnings of Western Reason 
Hegel on the “desire” of World-Historical Individuals  
The Master-Slave Dialectic and its Historical Reference 
Hegel‟s Account of the State of Nature 
Kojeve and the fight to the death for pure prestige 
Spengler and the Faustian Soul of the West 
McNeill and the Indo-European Roots of the West‟s Warrior Ethos 
 

Chapter Seven 

The Aristocratic Egalitarianism of Indo-Europeans and the 

Primordial Origins of Western Civilization 

 
The Founding Fathers of the West: Democratic Citizens or Aristocratic Warriors? 
 Indo-Europeans as the “Other” of World History 
The Distinctive Indo-Europeanization of the West 
Chariots, Mycenaeans, and Aristocratic Berserkers 
Aristocratic and Martial Traits 
The Impact of Indo-Europeans on the Civilizations of the East 
“Big Man” Feasting and the Origins of Inequality 
Prestige-Seeking Chiefs 
From Simple to Paramount Chiefdoms 
“Eastern” Group-Oriented and “Western” Individualizing Chiefdoms 
City-States: Sumerian versus Greek 
The Autocratic Character of Mesopotamia and Egypt 
The 

Epic of Gilgamesh

 is not a Heroic Tragedy  

 

Chapter Eight 

The Emergence of the Self from the Western „State of Nature‟ 

and the Conciliation of Christianity and Aristocratic Liberty  

 
Fukuyama and the Megalothymia of the “first men” of the West 
Why Hegel‟s “Master” Must be Aristocratic 
Kojeve and the “first appearance” of Self-Consciousness 
Charles Taylor and Plato‟s Self-Mastery 
The Beginnings of Genuine Personalities in History 
Nietzsche‟s “Homer on Competition” 

Arête

 and the Education of the Greeks 

The Roman Aristocratic Link 
The Germanic Barbarian Rejuvenation of the West 
Feudalism: an Aristocratic Type of Rule 
Charlemagne‟s Continuation of the Western Tradition 
Christian Virtues and Aristocratic Expansionism 
Aristocratic liberty and the Rise of Representative Institutions 
 
Cited Works 
Index