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A review by books_ergo_sum
How the World Made the West: A 4,000-Year History by Josephine Quinn
informative
4.0
I like my ancient Mediterranean history with a side of upending Eurocentrism.
This book starts in 2000 BCE (so like, four thousand years ago; as far from the fall of the Roman Empire as we are now in 2025 CE) but this book DOES NOT—
▪️ try to root “civilization” (aka Europe) in the Bronze Age, Ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire.
Instead, our author begins with a critique of “civilizational thinking” as stemming from the height of European colonialism. And emphasizes what we can learn about ancient history when we remove this anachronistic colonial mindset.
It was cool. And I’d say its target audience is someone who is curious about ancient pottery, textiles, languages, early alphabets, ancient religions, etc—but avoids ancient history nonfiction because it can be too… “Roman salute” adjacent—if you know what I mean 🙄
This book starts in 2000 BCE (so like, four thousand years ago; as far from the fall of the Roman Empire as we are now in 2025 CE) but this book DOES NOT—
▪️ try to root “civilization” (aka Europe) in the Bronze Age, Ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire.
Instead, our author begins with a critique of “civilizational thinking” as stemming from the height of European colonialism. And emphasizes what we can learn about ancient history when we remove this anachronistic colonial mindset.
It was cool. And I’d say its target audience is someone who is curious about ancient pottery, textiles, languages, early alphabets, ancient religions, etc—but avoids ancient history nonfiction because it can be too… “Roman salute” adjacent—if you know what I mean 🙄