Worlds at War: The 2,500-Year Struggle Between East and West

Give it a miss

I'm having little luck with my reading of recently published historical works from US academics. Harvey sash's account of the world in Beethoven's time was marred by his unhistorical imposition of 'democratic' ideas onto Beethoven. Pagden is arguing from the same unhistorical premisses. The book makes hints at relevance to America's current efforts in the Middle East. Pagden explicitly notes that by 'East' he does not mean the Far East, whose civilization he believes has similar bases to that of the West. What a breathtaking and wrong-headed assertion! He presents the great Greek and Persian confrontation as a battle of democracy and autocracy. This is a typical sweeping generalization. Sparta, part of the Greek confederation, was scarcely a democracy and Persia fostered something like democratic rule in her Ionian cities. Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, he says, was motivated by a his commitment to eliminate 'all belief, all religion'. This of a man who came to a more-or-less amicable agreement with the Pope. I'm looking for popular US historians who are not obsessing on using their trade to promote democracy and the American way. Excuse this facetiousness. There are plenty and I have read some lately. Pagden is not one of them.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Every worldly citizen should read this.

As a novice in Middle Eastern history, "Worlds at War" wrapped me in a historical journey that took me into the truth of this unending war between what we are considered "West" and the "East".
I would highly recommend this to anyone seeking knowledge and account of the current war we are experiencing today. Though we can carry on with our everyday lives in absence of fear and paranoia of political issues, we must understand that deep within the walls of our nations, our countries, and even our individual beliefs, there underlies matters of hatred, malice, suffering and brutal ownership that cannot be ignored.
Like a volcano in dormancy, we must still monitor its behavior.

Prolixity for 2,500 years

This is a sprawling, prolix, undisciplined but quite interesting book. It would benefit by editing. The number of typographical errors are legion. For example, on page 143 it says 'know that every Muslim is a Muslim's bother(sic)..!

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.

No text was provided for this review.