The West - by Georgios Varouxakis (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A comprehensive intellectual history of the idea of the West."--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

A comprehensive intellectual history of the idea of the West

How did "the West" come to be used as a collective self-designation signaling political and cultural commonality? When did "Westerners" begin to refer to themselves in this way? Was the idea handed down from the ancient Greeks, or coined by nineteenth-century imperialists? Neither, writes Georgios Varouxakis in The West, his ambitious and fascinating genealogy of the idea. "The West" was not used by Plato, Cicero, Locke, Mill, or other canonized figures of what we today call the Western tradition. It was not first wielded by empire-builders. It gradually emerged as of the 1820s and was then, Varouxakis shows, decisively promoted in the 1840s by the French philosopher Auguste Comte (whose political project, incidentally, was passionately anti-imperialist). The need for the use of the term "the West" emerged to avoid the confusing or unwanted consequences of the use of "Europe." The two overlapped, but were not identical, with the West used to differentiate from certain "others" within Europe as well as to include the Americas.

After examining the origins, Varouxakis traces the many and often astonishingly surprising changes in the ways in which the West has been understood, and the different intentions and consequences related to a series of these contested definitions. While other theories of the West consider only particular aspects of the concept and its history (if only in order to take aim at its reputation), Varouxakis's analysis offers a comprehensive account that reaches to the present day, exploring the multiplicity of current, and not least, prospective future meanings. He concludes with an examination of how, since 2022, definitions and membership of the West have been reworked to consider Ukraine, as the evolution and redefinitions continue.

Review Quotes

"Georgios Varouxakis's rigorously analytical The West. . . offers an antidote to unnuanced, polarised geopolitical thinking."---Lucasta Miller, The Spectator

"Reader[s] will be fascinated by [Varouxakis'] account of how the definition and membership of the "West" has changed over time."---Matthew Partridge, Money Week

"A Tablet Book of the Year"

"Georgios Varouxakis' The West is a model of intellectual history, tracing the idea of the West from its surprising origins, through two centuries of shifting sands, to the current (but hardly unique) crisis, without ever unduly praising or burying the phenomenon. A cool intellectual breeze for an overheated debate."---Nick Spencer, The Tablet

"[A] deeply erudite yet highly readable work that lays many myths to rest. . . .Varouxakis may have written the most original history book of the year."---Daniel Johnson, The Critic

"A Foreign Affairs Best Book of the Year"

"Georgios Varouxakis has written a much-needed book: The West: The History of an Idea. . . . The kaleidoscope of quotations in his book testifies to a Herculean scholarly effort."---Jaroslaw Kuisz, Foreign Policy

"In The West: The History of an Idea, Georgios Varouxakis tells this story with wit, insight, and erudition. It is our great fortune that the first comprehensive history of the idea of the West is also, for the foreseeable future, the best. Anyone with ideas on the subject will be well advised to read it closely and keep it within reach."---Yuri Slezkine, New York Review of Books

"A Financial Times Best Book of the Year"

"A Spectator Book of the Year"

"[A] massive scholarly accomplishment."---Ferenc Laczo, Modern Intellectual History

"Georgios Varouxakis's The West: The History of an Idea is a genealogy of this elusive concept. . . . What makes Varouxakis's study so timely is that he carries this story forward to the present. . . . By situating 'the West' as a historical invention rather than a civilizational given, Varouxakis's book provides both a corrective and a warning."---Etan Nechin, Haaretz

"Meticulously researched, engaging, and sometimes bewildering."---Andrew Kaufmann, Mere Orthodoxy

"Georgios Varouxakis's history of the idea of the West. . . is enormously illuminating."---Hans Kundnani, Times Literary Supplement

"[A] masterful study."---G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs

"A monumental endeavour that sets an incredible example for what rigorous scholarship can still manage to achieve."---Huzaifa Omair Siddiqi, The Wire India

"Much of the story Varouxakis tells will be new, even to other historians. His book .... is not only deeply researched and clearly written, but also highly original."---Daniel Johnson, The Critic

"This book will serve as a salutary reminder of how recent our ideas about the ancient past can really be and how deceptively complex are the ties that bind us with it."---Mark Mazower, Financial Times

"A seriously impressive piece of intellectual history."---Nick Spencer, The Spectator

"The West is a monumental achievement of scholarship. Its chief contribution is its decentering of imperial and racial paradigms, which have become politicized and turned into stale orthodoxies that have led to distortions in historical understanding."---Max Skjönsberg, Law & Liberty

About the Author

Georgios Varouxakis is professor of the history of political thought in the School of History at Queen Mary University of London and Codirector of the Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought. He is the author of Mill on Nationality, Victorian Political Thought on France and the French, and Liberty Abroad: J. S. Mill on International Relations and the coauthor of Contemporary France.