The Empire of Civilization

The term “civilization” comes with considerable baggage, dichotomising people, cultures, and histories as “civilised”—or not. While the idea of civilisation has been deployed throughout history to justify all manner of interventions and sociopolitical engineering, few scholars have stopped to consider what the concept actually means. Here, Brett Bowden examines how the idea of civilisation has informed our thinking about international relations over the course of ten centuries.

From the Crusades to the colonial era to the global war on terror, this sweeping volume exposes civilisation as a stage-managed account of history that legitimises imperialism, uniformity, and conformity to Western standards, culminating in a liberal-democratic global order. Along the way, Bowden explores the variety of confrontations and conquests—as well as those peoples and places excluded or swept aside—undertaken in the name of civilisation.

Concluding that the “West and the rest” have more commonalities than differences, The Empire of Civilization is a provocative and engaging book that ultimately points the way toward an authentic intercivilisational dialogue emphasising cooperation over clashes.