How the West Won--intro

I just finished a great book dealing with the rise of the West. It's called How the West Won, by Rodney Stark, a noted historian who has impressed me in the past. This one is a keeper too.

He's dealing with what he calls "a flood of absurd, politically correct fabrications, all of them popular on college campuses." For example, he says students are being told that the Greeks copied their whole culture from black Egyptians, that European science originated in Islam, that Western affluence was stolen from non-Western societies.

Stark challenges traditional Western history. He says that the fall of Rome was the single most beneficial event in the rise of Western civilization. In addition, he says the " Dark Ages" never happened (it was actually an era of remarkable progress and innovation that included the invention of capitalism). Furthermore, Stark notes that the Crusaders did not march east in pursuit of land and loot. He claims there was no scientific revolution during the 17th century – these brilliant achievements were part of  long scientific progress that stretched back to the 12th century. He also argues that Europe did not grow rich by draining wealth from its worldwide colonies; in fact, the colonies drained well from Europe.

So, this book challenges a lot of assumptions and a lot of the so-called history that students are receiving these days in school. In the next few blogs I want to go through this book because it's important to know why Western civilization triumphed over other cultures – and why we all should be thankful it did.