Historiansplaining: A historian tells you why everything you know is wrong

Unlocked: Myth of the Month 8: "The West"

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Jul 7, 2020
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INSIGHT

The West Is A Modern Construct

  • The modern idea of a single coherent "West" is a recent invention that solidified in the 20th century.
  • Historians project that constructed category back onto ancient and medieval societies, creating a false continuity.
INSIGHT

Technologies Traveled Across Eurasia

  • Eurasian societies have long exchanged technologies and ideas, so "western" achievements often originated elsewhere.
  • Gunpowder and printing came from China and diffused gradually to Europe, undermining claims of unique western invention.
INSIGHT

Western Civilization As A Constellation

  • "Western civilization" functions like a constellation metaphor: useful but an illusion of coherent pattern.
  • It mainly serves to explain the prehistory of modern liberal industrial states, not an absolute cultural unit.
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