How The West Won

Author : Rodney Stark
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 380 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2023-07-11
Category : History
ISBN : 9781684516223

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How the West Won by Rodney Stark Pdf

Finally the Truth about the Rise of the West Modernity developed only in the West—in Europe and North America. Nowhere else did science and democracy arise; nowhere else was slavery outlawed. Only Westerners invented chimneys, musical scores, telescopes, eyeglasses, pianos, electric lights, aspirin, and soap. The question is, Why? Unfortunately, that question has become so politically incorrect that most scholars avoid it. But acclaimed author Rodney Stark provides the answers in this sweeping new look at Western civilization. How the West Won demonstrates the primacy of uniquely Western ideas—among them the belief in free will, the commitment to the pursuit of knowledge, the notion that the universe functions according to rational rules that can be dis­covered, and the emphasis on human freedom and secure property rights. Taking readers on a thrilling journey from ancient Greece to the present, Stark challenges much of the received wisdom about Western history. Stark also debunks absurd fabrications that have flourished in the past few decades: that the Greeks stole their culture from Africa; that the West’s “discoveries” were copied from the Chinese and Muslims; that Europe became rich by plundering the non-Western world. At the same time, he reveals the woeful inadequacy of recent attempts to attribute the rise of the West to purely material causes—favorable climates, abundant natural resources, guns and steel. How the West Won displays Rodney Stark’s gifts for lively narrative history and making the latest scholarship accessible to all readers. This bold, insightful book will force you to rethink your understanding of the West and the birth of modernity—and to recognize that Western civilization really has set itself apart from other cultures.

Author : Myles Dungan
Publisher : Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
Page : 321 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2011-03
Category : History
ISBN : 9781616081003

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How the Irish Won the West by Myles Dungan Pdf

Now everyone will know the truth. Without the Irish, the American frontiermay never have been tamed.

Author : Louis L'Amour
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 1988
Category : Western stories
ISBN : OCLC:1244847046

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How the West was Won by Louis L'Amour Pdf

They came by river and by wagon train, braving the endless distances of the Great Plains and the icy passes of the Sierra Nevada. They were men like Linus Rawlings, a restless survivor of Indian country who?d headed east to see the ocean but left his heart -- and his home -- in the West. They were women like Lilith Prescott, a smart, spirited beauty who fled her family and fell for a gambling man in the midst of a frontier gold boom. These pioneering men and women sowed the seeds of a nation with their courage -- and with their blood. Here is the story of how their paths would meet amid the epic struggle against fierce enemies and nature?s cruelty, to win for all time the rich and untamed West.

Author : Victor Davis Hanson
Publisher : Faber & Faber
Page : 492 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2002
Category : Battles
ISBN : 0571216404

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Why the West Has Won by Victor Davis Hanson Pdf

'Why The West Has Won' provides a history of the rise to dominance of the West, exploring the links between cultural values and military success.

Author : Ian Morris
Publisher : McClelland & Stewart
Page : 767 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2011-01-14
Category : History
ISBN : 9781551995816

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Why the West Rules - For Now by Ian Morris Pdf

Why does the West rule? In this magnum opus, eminent Stanford polymath Ian Morris answers this provocative question, drawing on 50,000 years of history, archeology, and the methods of social science, to make sense of when, how, and why the paths of development differed in the East and West — and what this portends for the 21st century. There are two broad schools of thought on why the West rules. Proponents of "Long-Term Lock-In" theories such as Jared Diamond suggest that from time immemorial, some critical factor — geography, climate, or culture perhaps — made East and West unalterably different, and determined that the industrial revolution would happen in the West and push it further ahead of the East. But the East led the West between 500 and 1600, so this development can't have been inevitable; and so proponents of "Short-Term Accident" theories argue that Western rule was a temporary aberration that is now coming to an end, with Japan, China, and India resuming their rightful places on the world stage. However, as the West led for 9,000 of the previous 10,000 years, it wasn't just a temporary aberration. So, if we want to know why the West rules, we need a whole new theory. Ian Morris, boldly entering the turf of Jared Diamond and Niall Ferguson, provides the broader approach that is necessary, combining the textual historian's focus on context, the anthropological archaeologist's awareness of the deep past, and the social scientist's comparative methods to make sense of the past, present, and future — in a way no one has ever done before.

Author : Niall Ferguson
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 432 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2011-11-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781101548028

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Civilization by Niall Ferguson Pdf

From the bestselling author of The Ascent of Money and The Square and the Tower “A dazzling history of Western ideas.” —The Economist “Mr. Ferguson tells his story with characteristic verve and an eye for the felicitous phrase.” —Wall Street Journal “[W]ritten with vitality and verve . . . a tour de force.” —Boston Globe Western civilization’s rise to global dominance is the single most important historical phenomenon of the past five centuries. How did the West overtake its Eastern rivals? And has the zenith of Western power now passed? Acclaimed historian Niall Ferguson argues that beginning in the fifteenth century, the West developed six powerful new concepts, or “killer applications”—competition, science, the rule of law, modern medicine, consumerism, and the work ethic—that the Rest lacked, allowing it to surge past all other competitors. Yet now, Ferguson shows how the Rest have downloaded the killer apps the West once monopolized, while the West has literally lost faith in itself. Chronicling the rise and fall of empires alongside clashes (and fusions) of civilizations, Civilization: The West and the Rest recasts world history with force and wit. Boldly argued and teeming with memorable characters, this is Ferguson at his very best.

Author : Oswald Spengler,Arthur Helps,Charles Francis Atkinson
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 500 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 1991
Category : History
ISBN : 0195066340

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The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler,Arthur Helps,Charles Francis Atkinson Pdf

Spengler's work describes how we have entered into a centuries-long "world-historical" phase comparable to late antiquity, and his controversial ideas spark debate over the meaning of historiography.

Author : Lou Cameron
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 388 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 1978
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 0345274016

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How the West was Won by Lou Cameron Pdf

Author : William H. McNeill
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 866 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2009-07-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9780226561615

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The Rise of the West by William H. McNeill Pdf

The Rise of the West, winner of the National Book Award for history in 1964, is famous for its ambitious scope and intellectual rigor. In it, McNeill challenges the Spengler-Toynbee view that a number of separate civilizations pursued essentially independent careers, and argues instead that human cultures interacted at every stage of their history. The author suggests that from the Neolithic beginnings of grain agriculture to the present major social changes in all parts of the world were triggered by new or newly important foreign stimuli, and he presents a persuasive narrative of world history to support this claim. In a retrospective essay titled "The Rise of the West after Twenty-five Years," McNeill shows how his book was shaped by the time and place in which it was written (1954-63). He discusses how historiography subsequently developed and suggests how his portrait of the world's past in The Rise of the West should be revised to reflect these changes. "This is not only the most learned and the most intelligent, it is also the most stimulating and fascinating book that has ever set out to recount and explain the whole history of mankind. . . . To read it is a great experience. It leaves echoes to reverberate, and seeds to germinate in the mind."—H. R. Trevor-Roper, New York Times Book Review

Author : Paula Nelson
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 250 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 1986
Category : History
ISBN : UVA:X001157499

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After the West was Won by Paula Nelson Pdf

In this well-written monograph Paula M. Nelson tells the story of the settlement of 'west river country, ' that part of South Dakota west of the Missouri River....Nelson's major contribution is her reconstruction of the social life of this generation of settlers....Nelson is particularly sensitive to the experience of pioneer women, both those who labored within the family and those single women who homesteaded on their own.--American Historical ReviewAfter the West Was Won is an impressively researched and beautifully written study....Nelson also conveys the sense of pain and suffering that pioneers in western South Dakota endured; the technology of steam, electricity, and internal combustion failed to create utopia in a primitive area after the West was won.--Technology and CulturePaula M. Nelson's account of the trials and tribulations of the pioneers of that flat, windswept plain is a welcome addition to the literature on the agricultural frontier.--Journal of American Histor

Author : Carl Abbott
Publisher : University of New Mexico Press
Page : 360 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2010-07-16
Category : Cities and towns
ISBN : 9780826333131

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How Cities Won the West by Carl Abbott Pdf

The author traces the evolution of early frontier towns at the beginning of Western expansion to the thriving urban centers they have become today.

Author : Kim Newman
Publisher : Bloomsbury Pub Limited
Page : 237 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 1990-01-01
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 0747507473

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Wild West Movies, Or, How the West was Found, Won, Lost, Lied About, Filmed and Forgotten by Kim Newman Pdf

From his acclaimed study of horror films, Nightmare Movies, Kim Newman turns his attention to the western. Against the backdrop of American history, popular mythology and the development of the cinema, the book examines the main themes and tensions of the genre. With reference to thousands of films and hundreds of directors and actors Newman brings his entertaining, wide-ranging and authoritative approach to bear on one of the cinema's most popular genres - with illuminating results.

Author : Bruce Wexler
Publisher : Skyhorse
Page : 176 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2022-08-09
Category : History
ISBN : 1510756450

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The Cowboys by Bruce Wexler Pdf

Relive the Old West with illustrated biographies of Western luminaries like “Buffalo Bill” Cody, Charles Goodnight, Bill Pickett, William and George Calloway, Joseph McCoy, and more! The glory days of the Old West cowboy lasted for only a couple of decades, but during this short time the cowboy's reputation became a fundamental part of the American mythos. The Cowboys delves deep into the world of these iconic men. It gives an intimate insight into the tough working conditions of the cowboy's working kit, which has now achieved iconic status. This book even investigates the legendary Cowboy Code that governed the conduct and behavior of these rough-hewn men. The Cowboys examines the wider social impact of the nineteenth-century American cattle industry, which not only encouraged the building of railroads and new cattle towns in the western states, but also drew many different kinds of men to the frontier. Investors, freed slaves, crooks, ex-soldiers, and other would-be adventurers all took the opportunity to make a new start as cowhands and ranchers in the Wild West. The Cowboys investigates the life of the average cowboy and tells the stories of some of the most successful cattlemen. Even today, American culture continues to evoke the iconic persona of the cowboy through rodeos, movies, television, toys, books, and music. The Cowboys is a celebration of all aspects of the extraordinary cowboy legend.

Author : Jean Teillet
Publisher : HarperCollins
Page : 576 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2019-09-17
Category : History
ISBN : 9781443450140

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The North-West Is Our Mother by Jean Teillet Pdf

There is a missing chapter in the narrative of Canada’s Indigenous peoples—the story of the Métis Nation, a new Indigenous people descended from both First Nations and Europeans Their story begins in the last decade of the eighteenth century in the Canadian North-West. Within twenty years the Métis proclaimed themselves a nation and won their first battle. Within forty years they were famous throughout North America for their military skills, their nomadic life and their buffalo hunts. The Métis Nation didn’t just drift slowly into the Canadian consciousness in the early 1800s; it burst onto the scene fully formed. The Métis were flamboyant, defiant, loud and definitely not noble savages. They were nomads with a very different way of being in the world—always on the move, very much in the moment, passionate and fierce. They were romantics and visionaries with big dreams. They battled continuously—for recognition, for their lands and for their rights and freedoms. In 1870 and 1885, led by the iconic Louis Riel, they fought back when Canada took their lands. These acts of resistance became defining moments in Canadian history, with implications that reverberate to this day: Western alienation, Indigenous rights and the French/English divide. After being defeated at the Battle of Batoche in 1885, the Métis lived in hiding for twenty years. But early in the twentieth century, they determined to hide no more and began a long, successful fight back into the Canadian consciousness. The Métis people are now recognized in Canada as a distinct Indigenous nation. Written by the great-grandniece of Louis Riel, this popular and engaging history of “forgotten people” tells the story up to the present era of national reconciliation with Indigenous peoples. 2019 marks the 175th anniversary of Louis Riel’s birthday (October 22, 1844)

Author : Bruce Wexler
Publisher : Skyhorse
Page : 512 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2014-04-01
Category : History
ISBN : 1628736542

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How the Wild West Was Won by Bruce Wexler Pdf

Dusty road shoot outs, roaming buffalo, bar brawls, gold, tragedy, genocide, damsels in distress, and cowboys riding off into the sunset—the taming of the Western frontier is one of the most colorful and fascinating periods of American history. In this beautifully illustrated and comprehensive book, Bruce Wexler brings the ruggedness of the old American West to life, as he has in all ten of his books about the history of the Wild West. Here the figures of the cowboy, gunslinger, soldier, Pony Express rider, settler, and Native American are introduced and explored through their impact on the settling and assimilation of the region. The century between 1800 and 1900 proved to be the most explosive in terms of change as the West evolved from an untamed territory into an integral part of the country, connected by institutions such as the pioneer trail, the stagecoach, the Pony Express, the railroads, and the telegraph wire. Through its portrayal in movies, literature, television, fashion, and art, the West has become a familiar concept. Wexler sheds light on this much-romanticized period of history by acknowledging its gritty realities and providing an answer as to why, even now, such an allure persists in surrounding it. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.