How the World Made the West

A 4,000 Year History

By: Josephine Quinn

Narrated by: Alix Dunmore

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 Humanity

In 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, 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.

©2024 Josephine Quinn (P)2024 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“As our leaders and pundits glorify ‘Western Civilization’ and excoriate migration and wokeness, Josephine Quinn offers a momentous correction: the Greeks and Romans were hodgepodge people, and if we are their heirs it is only because of globe-spanning connections that always produce multifarious ways of life. . . . Brilliant and essential.”—Samuel Moyn, author of Liberalism Against Itself: Cold War Intellectuals and the Making of Our Times

“Bold, beautifully written, and filled with insights, How the World Made the West demands that we challenge traditional views of the past. An extraordinary achievement.”—Peter Frankopan, bestselling author of The Earth Transformed

“One of the most fascinating works of global history to appear for many years . . . incredibly ambitious and wide-ranging . . . allowing us to understand just how globalized and interconnected mankind has always been.”—William Dalrymple, bestselling author of The Anarchy

Great read

How the World Made the West by Josephine Quinn is an excellent and thought-provoking journey through 4,000 years of history. Quinn masterfully presents a broad and engaging narrative that traces the key influences that shaped Western civilization, making this book both informative and captivating for history enthusiasts.

However, as is often the case in works like this, there is a noticeable lack of focus on African civilizations. This omission is perhaps due to the scarcity of surviving historical records, but it remains a gap worth acknowledging. While African contributions to global history are significant, they are not thoroughly explored here.

That said, Quinn’s book is outstanding in every other respect, providing a sweeping view of cultural, political, and intellectual exchanges that defined the Western world. Her insights are clear, well-researched, and accessible. I would highly recommend How the World Made the West to anyone interested in understanding the forces that shaped our world today.

Middling

There are problems with this book and production. Production/narration wise there is no reason to (selectively it would appear) to read academic footnotes which interrupts the narrative flow of the book.

The content itself is interesting, However the author’s overarching attempts to condemn “civilizational thinking,” feels at best forced and lends itself to a plot line where anecdotes are seemingly cherry-picked to fit that agenda rather than the most important considerations of the time.

A fascinating and challenging journey

I loved listening to this book over the course of two weeks. I felt a deep connection with the richness of human history, from the ancient world to the classical period to late medieval times, through a framework that challenges the received wisdom of a Eurocentric reading of history. Both the writer and the narrator bring the stories to life so well that I could almost hear, smell, taste, and feel the places, and recognize the humanity of the peoples who gave rise to what became the 'known world' by the end of the 18th century. Because of my interest in linguistics, I've long assumed that cultural exchanges from India to Northern Africa shaped both European and Asian societies. I hope this book helps readers appreciate the many strands of history and culture that contribute to who we are today, whether we are in what became the Americas, Europe, West Asia, East Asia, and all the places in between.

It’s comprehensiveness. Very few people know this history and its value to the West.

It’s complete history of the Silk Road history. The best book in this category that I have read. Necessary to fully appreciate the role of the “Silk Road” countries in the growth and power of the West.

Convincing defense of the thesis that the world created the west.

You better like your history straight, no chaser. I certainly do. If your interest in BCE is just starting, this book would be a real struggle to assemble five thousand years before CE. It is scholarly and wonderful. Fills in gaps I didn’t know existed. Brilliant.

just a Chronicle of events and times.

this book is just a history book. It is filled with a chronology of events and times, but no concepts about history as implied in the title. The title is designed to sell books, but the book itself is simply a very long and boring history book.