HOW THE WORLD MADE THE WEST

A world history, from ancient times to the discovery of America, emphasizing the contacts between disparate regions.

Quinn, a classics professor at Oxford University, begins by noting the conventional wisdom that “Greece and Rome are the roots of Western Civilization.” Arguing that this formula “impoverishes our view of the past,” she shows how many of the ideas and technologies we associate with Greece and Rome were borrowed from Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Phoenician, African, and East Asian sources. Even in the earliest times, she points out, hunter-gatherers traveled widely in pursuit of game, inevitably meeting others from different parts and trading useful objects and ideas. The pioneering cities of Egypt and Mesopotamia relied on imported building materials and new means of transportation such as donkeys and wheeled vehicles. Ships were important from the outset, as revealed by artifacts from all over the ancient world found in the ruins of port cities on the Levantine coast. The book traces the stories of an imposing array of different early cultures, always focusing on their relations with others and how each of them drew on their predecessors and contemporaries. Quinn makes a point of reexamining many of the familiar landmarks of ancient history—notably the wars between Greece and Persia and between Rome and Carthage, with an emphasis on the “other” side. Even readers with a fairly good knowledge of history are likely to learn something new about, for example, the Etruscans or Phoenician colonies on the Iberian peninsula. This is probably not the first world history one should read, but to those already familiar with the conventional narrative, it adds an important new dimension.

A fascinating look at world history from the broadest possible perspective.