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Unfabling the East

The Enlightenment's Encounter with AsiaBy Jürgen OsterhammelNarrated by Ric Jerrom

Length25h 49m

About this audiobook

This audiobook narrated by Ric Jerrom reveals how Enlightenment Europe rediscovered its identity by measuring itself against the great civilizations of Asia During the long eighteenth century, Europe's travelers, scholars, and intellectuals looked to Asia in a spirit of puzzlement, irony, and openness. In this panoramic and colorful book, Jürgen Osterhammel tells the story of the European Enlightenment's nuanced encounter with the great civilizations of the East, from the Ottoman Empire and India to China and Japan. Here is the acclaimed book that challenges the notion that Europe's formative engagement with the non-European world was invariably marred by an imperial gaze and presumptions of Western superiority. Osterhammel shows how major figures such as Leibniz, Voltaire, Gibbon, and Hegel took a keen interest in Asian culture and history, and introduces lesser-known scientific travelers, colonial administrators, Jesuit missionaries, and adventurers who returned home from Asia bearing manuscripts in many exotic languages, huge collections of ethnographic data, and stories that sometimes defied belief. Osterhammel brings the sights and sounds of this tumultuous age vividly to life, from the salons of Paris and the lecture halls of Edinburgh to the deserts of Arabia, the steppes of Siberia, and the sumptuous courts of Asian princes. He demonstrates how Europe discovered its own identity anew by measuring itself against its more senior continent, and how it was only toward the end of this period that cruder forms of Eurocentrism--and condescension toward Asia—prevailed. A momentous work by one of Europe's most eminent historians, Unfabling the East takes readers on a thrilling voyage to the farthest shores, bringing back vital insights for our own multicultural age.

Audiobook details

GenreHistory

Length25 hrs 49 mins

Narrated byRic Jerrom

FormatAudiobook

Publish dateNov 13, 2018

LanguageEnglish

1Opening Anno, Preface

12The Present and the Past, Chapter 8 - The Raw Forces of History: Apocalyptic Horsemen, Conquerors, Usurpers

2Chapter 1 - Introduction: Looking to the East

13Chapter 9 - Savages and Barbarians

3Pathways of Knowledge, Chapter 2 - Asia and Europe: Borders, Hierarchies, Equilibria

14Chapter 9 - Continued: Knights and Strangers in Crimea

4Chapter 3 - Changing Perspectives

15Chapter 10 - Real and Unreal Despots

5Chapter 4 - Traveling

16Chapter 10 - Continued: Anquetil-Duperron: The Despot's New Clothes

Show all chapters

6Chapter 4 - Continued: South Asia and Southeast Asia: Porous Borders

17Chapter 11 - Societies

7Chapter 5 - Encounters

18Chapter 11 - Continued: Castes: Religious Straitjacket or Social Utopia?

8Chapter 6 - Eyewitnesses--Earwitnesses: Experiencing Asia

19Chapter 12 - Women

9Chapter 6 - Continued: Methods of Inquisitive Class

20Chapter 13 - Into a New Age: The Rise of Eurocentrism

10Chapter 7 - Reporting, Editing, Reading: From Lived Experience to Printed Text

21Chapter 13 - Continued: Decline, Degeneration, Stagnation, Closing Anno

11Chapter 7 - Continued: The Task of the Translator

About the author

Jürgen Osterhammel

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