Combating Hesperocentrism

"Hesperian" and the words formed with "Hespero-" are today's Words of the Day. Simply, "hespero-" is a Greek form meaning western. Thus, hesperocentrism is a mental state or world view dominated by western history and culture that disregards the influences of the non-western world. Principally, a hesperocentric thinks that all that has mattered in creating most of the modern world's structure is Britain, France, Spain and America, and ancient Rome and Greece. Now there is an element of truth in that, "but" it misses and distorts a lot.

Below I list six books that I have read or am now reading which have been excellent in mapping out some truly important historical and cultural patterns that one needs to know to understand where the world is now and where it might be going. These books are focused on eastern Europe and the Near East, as those areas are now quite crucial in the world's trajectory in the "phase space of humanity", viz., that's what I call the state and evolution of human history in time and space.

1. History of the Byzantine State, by George Ostrogorsky. The Roman Empire did not fall in 476 AD; it continued as a force in history and the world until 1204 AD in the east, finally being extinguished in 1453 AD. The East Roman Empire, aka, the Byzantine Empire, was truly enormously significant in Europe and the Near East for centuries.

2. The Arabs in History, by Bernard Lewis. Understanding the creation of the Arab and later Islamic empires of course matters for the entire Near East from about 650 AD to the present. This short book does a fine job providing the principle historical, cultural and religious events and issues.

3. The Mongols, by David Morgan. The Mongol invasions and empire both broke up old structures and created new ones. All Asia was impacted from about 1200 AD to mid 1300 AD and later in Russia. This force needs to be understood to see what influenced early Russia and the Near East, as well as China and India.

4. Soldiers of Fortune, by Sir John Glubb. The Mamluke Empire in Syria and Egypt from 1250 to 1500 cements the Arab and Byzantine world together with the later Ottoman Empire. This book provides a fine history and also emphasizes the structure of the warrior caste of Turkish soldiers who ran it.

5. The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire, by Lord Kinross. This culture and empire is crucial for understanding the Near East and eastern Europe from about 1200 AD to World War I.

6. God's Playground: A History of Poland, by Norman Davies. Poland was a world power from around 1200 AD until 1700 AD and had much influence on Europe until it was temporarily extinguished as a nation in the third partition in 1795. At one period Poland was the largest nation in Europe and perhaps the most powerful. One fact brought out by this book is that "freedom" was NOT invented in the west. The freedom of the Polish "szlachty", which was an unusually broad class of nobility representing about 10% of the population, was nearly perfect. perhaps unduly perfect, as one learns in the history.

Words of the Day

"Hespero-" - see above, first paragraph. [$10,000]

"Hesperian" - noun [$10]
Hesperian means 1. western; 2. (in Greek mythology) of or concerning the Hesperides (nymphs who guarded the garden of the golden apples as the western extremity of the Earth).

"Hesperophobe" - noun [$10,000]
Hesperophobe means one who fears the west.
Sentence: "Another phase much sneered at by hesperophoes was 'the Free World' " - from "Reflections on a Ravaged Century" by Robert Conquest, pg. 165.

"Hesperophile" - noun [$10,000]
Hesperophile means one whose outlook is dominated by the west and western culture, primary that of America, Britain, France, Spain and ancient Rome and Greece.

Sentence for both: Since World War II, intellectual hesperophiles and hesperphobes, primarily conservatives for the former and liberals for the latter, have overlooked much important history and culture in eastern Europe and the Near East vital to understanding the modern world.