How the World Made the West by Josephine Quinn: A sprawling new history

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The Karmak, a plater cast from 1830-1849, also know as 'A New Enemy' displayed in London. For the last 200 years, writes ancient historian Josephine Quinn, we have become trapped in 'civilisational thinking'. Photograph: Carlos Jasso/Getty Images How the World Made the West: A 4,000-Year History Author : Josephine Quinn ISBN-13 : 978-1526605184 Publisher : Bloomsbury Guideline Price : £30 “Our civilisation,” James Joyce wrote, “is an immense woven fabric in which very different elements are mixed,” from “Nordic rapacity” to “Roman law” to the modern “bourgeois conventions” we have laid over “a Siriac religion”. “In such a fabric,” he...