The East in the West [Paperback]

A provocative, wide-ranging study which challenges our assumptions about Eastern 'backwardness'.In reassessing Western views of Asia, which much European history and social theory has seen as static or backward , this text challenges Eurocentric assumptions, including the notion of a special Western rationality, differences in mercantile activity and the role of the family.In reassessing Western views of Asia, which much European history and social theory has seen as static or backward , this text challenges Eurocentric assumptions, including the notion of a special Western rationality, differences in mercantile activity and the role of the family.The East in the West reassesses Western views of Asia, which much European history and social theory has seen as static or backward. Jack Goody challenges these Eurocentric assumptions, including the notion of a special Western rationality, and differences in mercantile activity. Other factors inhibiting the East's development, such as the role of the family, have also been greatly exaggerated, and have contributed to a misunderstanding of both Eastern and Western history and society. This wide-ranging and provocative book begins to redress the balance.Introduction: the West's problem with the East; 1. Rationality in review; 2. Rationality and ragioneria: The Keeping of Books and the Economic Miracle; 3. Indian trade and Economy in the Medieval and Early Colonial Periods; 4. The Growth of Indian Commerce and Industry; 5. Family and business in the East; 6. From collective to individual? The historiography of the family in the West; 7. Labour, Production and Communication; 8. Revaluations. The book will be appreciated by modern Asian scholars....Goody's presentation is compact yet informative, provocative, and at the same time elegant. The author certainly brings freshness into a timeworn dialogue. The reading list at the end of the book is admirable. Arun Das Gupta International History Review This book shlƒ&