Historians Debate the Rise of the West by Jonathan Daly (review)

In this concise volume, intended primarily for undergraduate students taking “world history” or “Western civilization” courses, Jonathan Daly reviews and summarizes, in five succinct chapters of about equal length, the ongoing debates surrounding why the West came to prominence at a particular moment in time. The remarkably brief introductory chapter (eleven pages) provides an overview of earlier scholarship related to this issue, though it could be argued that the sections on Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and Max Weber would have benefited from a more thorough exposition. Why the author opted not to include a more suitable explanation of Hegel’s “complex theory,” or for that matter more than just one paragraph on Hegel, is something of a mystery.

Chapters 1 through 5 organize the materials thematically, which helpfully allows students to make sense of the multiple points of view (and schools of thought). Overall, Daly has done a remarkable job: His summaries are to the point, and he engages students with a well-written exposé of each author’s views, as well as positioning them within this extensive debate.

In chapter 1, Daly reviews scholarship that focuses on the “miracle of the West” and arguments such as those by the late David Landes, which emphasize internal factors to explain long-term developments. In chapter 2, he introduces various studies that take a more holistic approach to “world history,” exemplified by such scholars as William McNeill and E. L. Jones. In doing so, Daly does not impose his own views or preferences, but usually limits himself to an objective summary and analysis as well as brief questions. He also attempts to explain how certain scholars reacted to previous studies, such as those calling attention to a substantial degree of misplaced Eurocentrism.

In chapter 3, Daly reviews research that explains the “rise of the West” from the vantage point of “exploitation and imperialism,” with a special focus on world system analysis as practiced by Andre Gunder Frank, Immanuel Wallerstein and Janet Abu-Lughod. In chapter 4, Daly discusses recent studies that specifically address “the greatness of Asia,” as exemplified by the work of Jack Goody, Kenneth Pomeranz, and John Hobson, who expose false claims about Western uniqueness and demonstrate the degree to which Europe’s or the West’s “rise” was possible only in relation to its myriad connections with the vastly larger and at times superior Asian landmass. The last chapter, “Why Not China?,” decenters the question of Europe’s rise and summarizes scholarship such as that of Joseph Needham and Mark Elvin, which considers reasons why the world’s most advance polity and economy of a thousand years ago did not “rise” as the West ultimately did.

Every chapter includes several pages of endnotes, and, more importantly for undergraduate students, several pages of “Further Reading” sections, with a thematically oriented bibliography, allowing the interested reader to become more familiar with additional specialized studies in the same tradition. A useful index at the end of the book follows the surprisingly brief conclusion of a mere five pages. Although the dozen maps included will certainly assist students reading about unfamiliar places and geopolitical complexity, more would have even been better. For example, why not a map of the Mongol World Empire, which is so crucial to some authors that Daly summarizes? In addition, juxtaposing a “traditional” Mercator world map, such as the one Daly uses in this study, with a more realistic “Peters” map would not be inappropriate, given how large Eurocentrism looms in many of these contributions.

The book could have also benefited from some more discussion of Eurocentrism in social science scholarship, or of the link between colonial and racist contexts on the one hand and Eurocentric epistemology on the other. Such discussion would have been appropriate in the conclusion and given students a bit more insight into terms of how historical scholarship has been created and subsequently challenged after the era of outright colonialism has come to an end. Such a discussion...