Jack Goody . Renaissances: The One or the Many? New York: Cambridge University Press. 2010. Pp. ix, 322. Cloth $78.00, paper $27.99.
Jack А. Goldstone
Jack Goody has now written several books placing the “Rise of West” in global context. This is by far best. While earlier books, such as The Theft History (2006), expressed outrage at Eurocentric narratives and were quite polemical, this book a carefully written, scholarly examination periods cultural economic growth across Eurasia. asks whether other civilizations had episodes artistic flowering similar to European Renaissance fourteenth sixteenth centuries. His motivation twofold. First, he seeks counter view, once widespread but no longer vogue, that was direct reaching back recover works Greco-Roman antiquity, thus represents wholly line development. Rather, today widely recognized, shows Europeans recovered Greek Roman science literature interpreted Arabic scholars further leavened Persian Indian influences. Thus fact culmination Eurasian trends, not simply
The American Historical Review