Eurocentrism: Modernity, Religion, and Democracy: A Critique of Eurocentrism and Culturalism

Since its first publication more than thirty years ago, Eurocentrism has become a classic of radical thought. Written by one of the world’s foremost political economists, this original and provocative essay takes on one of the great “ideological deformations” of our time: Eurocentrism. Rejecting the dominant Eurocentric view of world history, which narrowly and incorrectly posits a progression from the Greek and Roman classical world to Christian feudalism and the European capitalist system, Amin presents a sweeping reinterpretation that emphasizes the crucial historical role played by the Arab Islamic world. Throughout the work, Amin addresses a broad set of concerns, ranging from the ideological nature of scholastic metaphysics to the meanings and shortcomings of contemporary political Islam. This second edition contains a new introduction and concluding chapter, both of which make the author’s arguments even more compelling.

Table of Contents:

PREFACE
1. MODERNITY AND RELIGIOUS INTERPRETATIONS
I. Modernity
II. Modernity and Religious Interpretations
III. Political Islam
2. CENTRAL AND PERIPHERAL TRIBUTARY CULTURES
I. Introduction
II. The Formation of Tributary Ideology in the Mediterranean Region
III. Tributary Culture in Other Regions of the Pre-Capitalist World
3. THE CULTURE OF CAPITALISM
I. Introduction
II. The Decline of Metaphysics and the Reinterpretation of Religion
III. The Construction of Eurocentric Culture
IV. Marxism and the Challenge of Actually Existing Capitalism
V. The Culturalist Evasion: Provincialism and Fundamentalism
VI. For a Truly Universal Culture
4. TOWARDS A NON-EUROCENTRIC VIEW OF HISTORY AND A NON-EUROCENTRIC SOCIAL THEORY
I. The Tributary Mode of Production: The Universal Form of Advanced Pre-Capitalist Societies
II. European Feudalism: Peripheral Tributary Mode
III. Mercantilism and the Transition to Capitalism: Unequal Development, Key to the Miracle of European Particularity
IV. Eurocentrism and the Debate over Slavery
V. Eurocentrism in the Theory of the Nation
VI. Actually Existing Capitalism and the Globalization of Value
NOTES
INDEX

Samir Amin was born in Egypt in 1931 and received his Ph.D. in economics in Paris in 1957. He is currently the director of UNITAR, a United Nations research institude in Dakar, Senegal. An economic cunsultant to many Third World countries, he is the author of numerous books, including Accumulation on a World Scale, Unequal Development, Neo-Colonialism in West Africa, Empire of Chaos, and Re-Reading the Postwar Period.