Unfabling the East - by Jürgen Osterhammel

Book Synopsis

How Enlightenment Europe rediscovered its identity by measuring itself against the great civilizations of Asia

During the long eighteenth century, Europe's travelers, scholars, and intellectuals looked to Asia in a spirit of puzzlement, irony, and openness. In this panoramic book, Jürgen Osterhammel tells the story of the European Enlightenment's nuanced encounter with the great civilizations of the East, from the Ottoman Empire and India to China and Japan. He shows how major figures such as Leibniz, Voltaire, and Gibbon took a keen interest in Asian culture and challenges the notion that Europe's formative engagement with the non-European world was invariably marred by an imperial gaze and presumptions of Western superiority. A momentous work by one of Europe's most eminent historians, Unfabling the East brings the sights and sounds of this tumultuous age vividly to life. It takes readers on a thrilling voyage to the farthest shores, bringing back vital insights for our own multicultural age.

From the Back Cover

"Erudite, original, and lively. Osterhammel defends the Enlightenment from the charge of Eurocentrism and portrays in sparkling detail its humane legacy of self-criticism and communication with other cultures."--Harry Liebersohn, author of The Travelers' World: Europe to the Pacific

"Osterhammel is truly a world historian--he can explain what the non-European side of the story looks like."--Suzanne L. Marchand, author of German Orientalism in the Age of Empire: Religion, Race, and Scholarship

Review Quotes

"[A] remarkably wide-ranging, original and thoroughly scholarly study."--Robert Irwin, Literary Review

"Brilliant. . . . It takes a book like this to move the debate beyond talking points and open your eyes to a wider context."--Michael Savage, Quillette

"Erudite, original, and lively. Osterhammel defends the Enlightenment from the charge of Eurocentrism and portrays in sparkling detail its humane legacy of self-criticism and communication with other cultures."--Harry Liebersohn, author of The Travelers' World: Europe to the Pacific

"Sensible and intelligent."--Joan-Pau Rubiés, Times Higher Education

About the Author

Jürgen Osterhammel is Distinguished Fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS). He is a recipient of the 2017 Toynbee Prize and the 2018 Balzan Prize for Global History. His books include The Transformation of the World: A Global History of the Nineteenth Century (Princeton).