Josephine C. Quinn Books

An award-winning Oxford history professor challenges the traditional view of Western culture, tracing its innovations and traditions back to societies worldwide, asserting that the West has always been global. Josephine Quinn confronts the notion of “civilizational thinking,” which suggests that civilizations developed independently. Instead, she connects the roots of modern Western culture to influences such as Babylonian law codes, Assyrian irrigation, Phoenician sailing, Indian literature, Arabic scholarship, and the metalworking traditions of the Steppe. Quinn argues that focusing solely on Greece and Rome limits our understanding of history, a perspective that would have been foreign to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who recognized their cultural exchanges with others. She enriches her analysis with ancient literary sources, including the epic of Gilgamesh and newly uncovered records of daily life. This work of remarkable scholarship also incorporates material culture, art, and findings from scientific advancements like carbon dating and genetics to dismantle the myth of the self-made modern West. Through engaging prose, vivid maps, and illustrations, Quinn redefines the narrative of Western civilization in today's interconnected world.

An award-winning Oxford history professor overturns the way the West thinks about itself, tracing its innovations and traditions to societies from all over the world and making the case that the West is, and always has been, truly global.“Superb, refreshing, and full of delights, this is world history at its best.”—Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The World: A Family History of HumanityIn How the World Made the West, Josephine Quinn poses perhaps the most significant challenge ever to the “civilizational thinking” regarding the origins of Western culture—that is, the idea that civilizations arose separately and distinctly from one another. Rather, she locates the roots of the modern West in everything from the law codes of Babylon, Assyrian irrigation, and the Phoenician art of sail to Indian literature, Arabic scholarship, and the metalworking riders of the Steppe, to name just a few examples.According to Quinn, reducing the backstory of the modern West to a narrative that focuses on Greece and Rome impoverishes our view of the past. This understanding of history would have made no sense to the ancient Greeks and Romans themselves, who understood and discussed their own connections to and borrowings from others. They consistently presented their own culture as the result of contact and exchange. Quinn builds on the writings they left behind with rich analyses of other ancient literary sources like the epic of Gilgamesh, holy texts, and newly discovered records revealing details of everyday life. A work of breathtaking scholarship, How the World Made the West also draws on the material culture of the times in art and artifacts as well as findings from the latest scientific advances in carbon dating and human genetics to thoroughly debunk the myth of the modern West as a self-made miracle.In lively prose and with bracing clarity, as well as through vivid maps and color illustrations, How the World Made the West challenges the stories the West continues to tell about itself. It redefines our understanding of the Western self and civilization in the cosmopolitan world of today.