Summary
The great books of western - or any -civilisation are a product of interactions with different cultures, and are full of contradictions. Truly great ideas and books that cross boundaries and appeal to different and diverse cultures emphasise their own incoherence, advertise their incompleteness. They tell their readers that they are all about "our" world and "their" worlds; about "me", "you" and "we"; about "us" and "them".
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Extract
Written Out of History
Many of civilisation's crowning glories originated in the east. Yet you'd be unlikely to learn this from reading western historians. ZIAUDDIN SARDAR on the books we ignore
Written out of historyGreat Ideas series Various authors Penguin, £3.99 eachHuman Accomplishment: the pursuit of excellence in the arts and sciences (800BC-1950) Charles Murray HarperCollins US, 688pp, £17.99The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation John M Hobson Cambridge University Press, 376pp, £17.99 (paperback)What constitutes a "great idea"? How do we measure the impact of an i...See the full content of this document
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