Publisher Description

The term "civilization" comes with considerable baggage, dichotomizing people, cultures, and histories as "civilized"—or not. While the idea of civilization has been deployed throughout history to justify all manner of interventions and sociopolitical engineering, few scholars have stopped to consider what the concept actually means. Here, Brett Bowden examines how the idea of civilization has informed our thinking about international relations over the course of ten centuries.            From the Crusades to the colonial era to the global war on terror, this sweeping volume exposes "civilization" as a stage-managed account of history that legitimizes imperialism, uniformity, and conformity to Western standards, culminating in a liberal-democratic global order. Along the way, Bowden explores the variety of confrontations and conquests—as well as those peoples and places excluded or swept aside—undertaken in the name of civilization. Concluding that the "West and the rest" have more commonalities than differences,this provocative and engaging bookultimately points the way toward an authentic intercivilizational dialogue that emphasizes cooperation over clashes. 

Author Biography

Brett Bowden is a senior lecturer in politics at the University of New South Wales at the Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments A Note on Spelling 1 Introduction: Guizot's Question: Universal Civilization? Part One: Civilization, Progress, and History: Universals All? 2 The Ideal of Civilization: Its Origins, Meanings, and Implications 3 Civilization and the Idea of Progress 4 The Notion of Universal Civilization: One End for All? Part Two: The Art and Science of Empire 5 The Expansion of Europe and the Classical Standard of Civilization 6 The Burden of Civilization and the "Art and Science of Colonization" Part Three: New Barbarism, Old Civilization, Revived Imperialism 7 New Barbarism and the Test of Modernity 8 The "New Realities" of Imperialism 9 Conclusion: The Future of Intercivilizational Relations Notes Bibliography Index

Review

"This is an extremely erudite book that clearly illustrates Brett Bowden's mastery of a wide variety of philosophical and historical sources. There is a lot of very interesting material here that is of enormous relevance to any contemporary intellectual reader attempting to place the concepts of 'civilization' and 'civilizations' in their proper historical contexts." - Patrick Thaddeus Jackson, American University"

Review Quote

"This well-argued, carefully researched book shows how valid and useful Lucien Febvre's remark that 'it is never a waste of time to study the history of a word' remains even today. Bowden's discussion of words such as ''civilization' and 'cosmopolitanism' ranges widely over Spanish debates on colonization, Enlightenment discourse, and contemporary Anglo-American writings. But what makes this book special is the fact that the colonized are never left out of view in Bowden's history of European thought. A remarkable achievement."-Dipesh Chakrabarty, Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor of History and South Asian Studies, University of Chicago

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