"In The Theft of History Jack Goody builds on his own previous work to extend further his highly influential critique of what he sees as the pervasive eurocentric or occidentalist biases of so much Western historical writing, and the consequent 'theft' by the West of the achievements of other cultures in the invention of (notably) democracy, capitalism, individualism and love. The Theft of History discusses a number of theorists in detail, including Marx, Weber and Norbert Elias, and engages, with critical admiration, western historians like Fernand Braudel, Moses Finaly and Perry Anderson, Major questions of method are raised, and Professor Goody proposes a new comparative methodology for cross-cultural analysis, one that gives a much more sophisticated basis for assessing divergent historical outcomes, and replaces outmoded simple differences between East and West. The Theft of History will be read by an unusually wide audience of historians, anthropologists and social theorists."--BOOK JACKET. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

If Goody (emer., Cambridge) is to be believed, history is too serious a business to be left to historians. In this remarkable book, one of the world's leading anthropologists argues that to the present day, historians have followed Marx and other 19th-century thinkers in seeing Europe as advancing and Asia and Africa as stagnant. Goody pays particular attention to such major scholars as Weber, Elias, and Braudel, noting the richness of their ideas but also identifying the Eurocentric strains in their work. Indeed, Goody offers his own view, that until the time of the Industrial Revolution, the West lagged behind Asia, especially China. For good measure, he notes that Western ascendancy is temporary, and that those things that the West considers distinctive (including its ideas of democracy, freedom, and individualism) are not unique. In brief, this is a vigorous and vivid critique of Western exceptionalism, to which Goody brings a lifetime of erudition, and from which historians will profit. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries. General Readers; Lower-division Undergraduates; Upper-division Undergraduates; Graduate Students; Researchers/Faculty; Professionals/Practitioners. Reviewed by S. Bailey. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Jack Goody is Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology in the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St John's College. Recently knighted by Her Majesty The Queen for services to anthropology, Professor Goody has researched and taught all over the world, is a Fellow of the British Academy, and in 1980 was made a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.