Naoise Mac Sweeney Livres

A BBC RADIO 4 Book of the Week 'A fantastic achievement' Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads'Bright, expansive, and iconoclastic, this deliciously witty book has the potential to upset the applecart of Western Civilisation itself... Magnificent' Prof. Suzannah Lipscomb A radical new account of how the idea of the West has shaped our history, told through the stories of fourteen fascinating lives.We tend to imagine Western Civilisation as a golden thread stretching from classical antiquity to the countries of the modern Western world. But what if this is wrong?Told through the lives of fourteen fascinating historical figures - including a formidable Roman matriarch, an unconventional Islamic scholar, an enslaved African American poetess and a British prime minister with Homeric aspirations - archaeologist and historian Naoise Mac Sweeney charts how the idea of the West was invented, how it has been used to justify imperialism and racism, and why it is no longer ideologically fit for purpose today.The result is a bold and empowering new story of the people and ideas who made us who we are today.

Does Western civilization really stretch back from modernity through the Enlightenment to the classical glories of Greece and Rome? We learn this story of Western history at school and take it for granted, but is it true? In this bold, story-driven retelling of global history, prize-winning historian Naoise Mac Sweeny debunks the myths and origin stories that underpin the history we thought we knew. Told through nine fascinating figures who each played a role in the creation of the Western idea -- from Herodotus a mixed-race refugee, to Mary Fisher, the Yorkshire housemaid who charmed an Ottoman sultan, and from Gladstone, with his private passion for epic poetry, to the medieval Arab scholar Al-Kindi - the subjects are a mind-expanding blend of unsung heroes and familiar faces viewed afresh. Each life tells us something unexpected about the age in which it was lived and offers us a piece of the puzzle of how the modern idea of the West developed - and why we've misunderstood it for too long. As a new world order emerges from the shocks of pandemics and populism, to chart a future for the West we must properly understand its past.

Examines Ionian foundation myths during the archaic and classical periods, exploring the construction of civic identities. The conclusions challenge conventional understandings of Ionia as well as traditional ideas about Greek ethnicity, suggesting that there was a more diverse conception of... číst celé

Eine radikal neue Darstellung, wie die Idee von der »westlichen Zivilisation« unsere Geschichte geformt hat Washington, Library of Congress. Mehr als ein Dutzend ehrwürdige Männer schauen von oben auf Naoíse Mac Sweeney herab – Moses, Homer und Herodot, Kolumbus, Michelangelo und Beethoven … Zusammen sechzehn Bronzebüsten, die die Entstehung der „westlichen Zivilisation« repräsentieren sollen. Doch wo in dieser Erzählung, denkt sich die Historikerin und Archäologin, findet sie als Frau mit Einwanderungsgeschichte ihren Platz? Deshalb fasst Mac Sweeney den Entschluss, eine andere Geschichte des Westens zu schreiben. Darin tritt Herodot nicht als berühmter »Vater der Geschichtsschreibung« auf, sondern als Migrant, der aus der türkischen Provinz vor seinen Häschern flüchtet. Sie erzählt von einer mächtigen römischen Matriarchin und einem islamischen Gelehrten, einem griechischen Kreuzfahrer und einem Sklavenmädchen im neuen Amerika. Ihre faszinierende Erzählung zeigt, dass das Konzept des »Westens« erfunden wurde zur Rechtfertigung von Ausgrenzung und Rassismus – und bis heute genau dazu dient.