Remaking the World

How can we understand Europe's peculiar role in world history and the enduring impact it has exerted on the rest of the world?

Jerrold Seigel traces both the positive and negative aspects of Europe's distinctiveness—including the lack of an effective central authority, the divisions and rivalries among its states and peoples, and its tendency to develop autonomous spheres of activity. The Transformation of the World analyzes how these traits underpinned Europe’s characteristic obsession with the politics of freedom, alongside the cultivation of an aesthetic sphere inspired by values specific to itself; its unique capacity to revolutionize scientific understanding, and its ability to achieve the first transition to a modern industrial economy. Extended and compelling comparisons with Africa, India, China, and the lands under Ottoman rule reveal the absence of similar developments elsewhere, whereas in Europe, these same features also contributed to unleashing the destructive power of imperial expansion.